UK – new biomass plants are expected

UK: 5 million tonnes of waste wood

According to Julia Turner, Managing Director of the UK Wood Recyclers Association (WRA), the UK produces five million tonnes of waste wood, recycles 1.7 million tonnes, uses 1.7 million tonnes as biomass and exports 300,000 tonnes per year. An annual 924,000 tons are used in the wood panel industry and supply 60 percent of the material for chipboard production. In terms of energy, waste wood stands for around 2.9 terawatts of electricity production per year and thus covers one percent of the British energy requirement.

New biomass plants are expected to generate an additional one million tonnes of electricity per year within the next twelve months. In August 2018, plant capacities for 2.1 million tonnes in operation, 1.3 million tonnes in commissioning, 0.4 million tonnes under construction and 0.6 million tonnes were therefore planned, a total of 3,468,000 tonnes. Julia Turner anticipates a number of specific factors – effects of the new fire protection plan, amended permits, possible changes of government and Brexit, to name but a few – that could affect the market for scrap wood and generate demand of between 4.4 and 5.9 million tonnes.

We expressly thank the editorial staff of EU-Recycling Magzins, who published this article in issue 11/2018, page 30. You can download the article in German here: EU-Recycling_11-2018-Altholz.