Cleaner Than Coal? Wood Power Makes a Comeback?

Biomass/Biofuels / Related Environmental Issues

Katherine Tweed, of the Scientific American, opines that in the midst of black spruce and jack pine stands in northwestern Ontario Crown forests, a global trend has come home to roost. Atikokan Generating Station ceased burning coal last year to prepare for its new fuel ... locally sourced wood pellets (made from small trees?). Canada already sends wood pellets abroad for power generation, but it is now leveraging the resource on a large scale in its own backyard. Atikokan will be the largest commercial power plant in North America to convert from coal to biomass, a trend that [is being evaluated] on a worldwide scale, especially in Europe.

The retrofit is part of the Ontario plan to be the first jurisdiction in North America to shut down its coal fleet. In Europe the drive to retrofit coal-fired power plants to biomass comes from the European Union Renewable Energy Directive, which calls for 20% of energy to come from renewables, including biomass, by 2020. Much of Europe's wood pellets are being imported from private forests in the southeastern U.S. as well other parts of North America. The move away from dirty coal to a renewable resource is seen as a win in terms of carbon emissions by some governments, but not everyone agrees. The definition of sustainably harvested wood pellets varies by power plant and country, and some environmentalists fear that the growing need for biomass will outstrip any benefits from sidelining coal.

If they are going to have this global trade in wood energy, says Brian Kittler, project director at the Pinchot Institute for Conservation, they will have to ask, how well do the European and U.S. systems match up? Studies have found that burning wood over fossil fuels produces about 65 to 95% less greenhouse gas emissions [What studies?]. Those studies, however, do not take into account the change in forest carbon stocks. There is debate as to how much carbon smaller trees take up compared with mature trees. [Burning small trees? You must be kidding ...]

Original working URL: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/wood-power-makes-comeback/?redirect=1