|
INTERNATIONAL LAUNCH FOR VILLAGE WOOD FUEL PROJECT
KEN JONES
09:00 - 11 February 2005
A Lochaber village where there are proposals to provide heating from waste timber is to host the launch of an international wood fuel project.
Northern WoodHeat, which aims to encourage the use of wood fuel resources, will bring together 16 partners from as far afield as Scotland, Iceland and Finland for the event at Kinlochleven on February 15.
The delegates from national forestry organisations, educational institutions, government agencies and commercial companies will gather at the village's community centre which is heated by its own woodfuel boiler, installed and maintained by one of the project partners, Highland Wood Energy.
Highland Council is also investigating a project which could see the Loch Leven-side community's heating and domestic hot water supplies provided by a wood fuel system.
Highland Council vice-convener Michael Foxley will make the opening address and a number of speakers will discuss the use of wood fuel from different perspectives.
Financed by the EU's Northern Periphery Programme and a range of national funding sources, the project will research and develop working woodfuel supply chains.
These will focus on areas of northern Europe where part, or all, of the woodfuel resource is unexploited but could be developed at a local scale to pave the way for a functional and sustainable wood fuel industry.
Project leaders say it could help peripheral areas of Scotland to tackle high fuel prices and difficulties with energy supply.
The National Grid is working at almost full capacity in many places, yet approximately 40% of electrical demand is for heat.
Producing heat directly from wood fuel would reduce the demand for electricity and ease the pressure on the National Grid.
A spokesman for the organisation said: "Wood is the most plentiful source of renewable energy in Scotland, but at the moment we just aren't using it.
"In the UK, the available forest resource greatly exceeds the current demand, and around 60% of this unused resource is in Scotland."
The project will test different wood fuel harvesting, production and transport techniques to determine which are economically viable at the small and medium scale, and which are most beneficial to long term forest development.
It will also encourage different business models for wood fuel supply and will include those based on estate-farm, community and co-operative facilities to ensure development of business strategies that maximise the potential for local involvement.
Fiona McPhie, Highland Birchwoods' Woodfuel project officer, said the aim was to further knowledge of how to maintain sustainable wood fuel supply chains.
It would have links with the Wick district heating scheme, which recently won recognition as the best community initiative as part of the Scottish Green Energy Awards.
The Scottish Executive's Forum for Renewable Energy last week released a report on the future of biomass technology in Scotland, which highlighted the importance of establishing a viable wood fuel supply industry.
Anyone wishing to attend the launch or find out more about the project should contact Ms McPhie on 01463 811653 or by email info@northernwoodheat.net
|
The
second Northern WoodHeat symposium will be held in
Hallormsstadur, Iceland on August 21-23 2006. Organised by our
partners at Heradsskogar and It will be hosted in
collaboration with the SNS (Nordic Forest Research
Co-operation Committee) project "Harvesting Bioenergy in young
forest stands". Full details can be downloaded
The first
Northern WoodHeat training course was held at the Scottish
School of Forestry in March. It was developed and delivered by
project partners from NCP and Metla, and attended by 14
delegates from various backgrounds. The course covered Fuel
Supply Chain Development, Boiler Technology and Scaling,
Boiler Economy and Heat Energy Business strategies.
The next course will be held in the week beginning 13th
November - to put your name down for this please contact Fiona
McPhie 
biomass development projects – North Sea Bio Energy,
ProBioEnergy and the Highlands and Islands Woodfuel
Development Programme – and the Highlands and Islands
Community Energy Company. 
It
brought together over 100 delegates from 11 European
countries, and was opened by Rhona Brankin, the Scottish
Executive’s Deputy Minister for Environment and Rural
Development. Speakers and delegates were drawn from a wide
variety of backgrounds and fields of expertise and talks
covered ranged from EU and Scottish policy on biomass to
details of practical experience of bioenergy production and
logistic and technical issues. 
The
first Northern WoodHeat Symposium was held in the Finnish
Forest Research Institute (Metla) building in Joensuu. This
building has only recently been completed and is an inspiring
architectural example of what can be achieved using wood.
The
Symposium was preceded by the International Steering Group
Meeting, which was followed in the evening by a visit to the Vainoniemi
Villa where everyone was treated to friendly Finnish
hospitality which included food and drink by a roaring wood
fire in a soapstone fireplace, and sauna followed by a plunge
in the beautiful lake for those who were brave!
followed by an outing to the Eno district heating
plant and the
Tulikivi soapstone factory. The day was rounded off with a
visit to the beautiful Koli
National Park, where we admired the stunning views from the
highest point in Southern Finland.
Tuesday
was entirely taken up with presentations which were very
varied and extremely interesting, and covered a wide range of
issues central to woodfuel supply. A summary of symposium
presentations can be found 
Wednesday was a day of site visits, which began with a talk on
Finnish heating technologies while on the bus. The first visit
was to Outokumpu to a ‘Bioenergy Day’ where the extraction and
chipping of forest biomass was demonstrated and everyone was
able to enjoy fire and food in the woods.
The next visit was to
the Nitylahti pellet boiler which provides heating for a
nursery and primary school. A civic lunch in the Joensuu town
hall followed with a presentation by the Director of
International Relations on many aspects of life in Joensuu. In
the afternoon, there was a visit to the John Deere Forestry
factory to find out about the latest developments in
harvesting and forwarding equipment. The delegates then
returned to the METLA building for the conclusion of the
seminar and an informal discussion.
sessions on the following subjects:
Vice-convenor of the Highland
Council, make the opening address, during which he emphasised
the need for increased awareness of the benefits of using woodfuel in order to counteract a lack of confidence in
woodfuel markets.
close links, Bob McIlwraith of ALIenergy who talked about his experiences
working with communities and woodfuel in Argyll, and Jon
Hollingdale of Dunnet Forestry Trust who gave a
thought-provoking talk on woodfuel as part of the management
of a community woodland. Andrew Nicol of DWP marketing and
harvesting rounded the day off by talking about co-operative
approaches to woodfuel.
