How wood pellet power plants are fueling climate change
By Klimanachrichten
(Translated/edited by P. Gosselin)
German public broadcasting show SWR3-Wissen had a podcast about burning wood in Europe. In Germany’s forests, less wood is taken than what grows back, but in Europe it’s different. Here, the forest is losing total area, which also means that carbon sinks are disappearing. But deforestation is not the only problem; forests also store water and release it with a delay. These “sponges” are lost after clear-cutting. Apparently, the EU’s plans to substitute wood for coal call for expanding that as well.
In the United Kingdom, the former Drax coal-fired power plant burns significant amounts of wood.
Europe massively subsidizing a forest-destroying energy source
“Nearly nine million tons of pellets per year are burned by the Drax power plant. That’s three times Germany’s pellet production and one and a half times the UK’s wood production. With this huge amount of wood, the power plant generates seven percent of the UK’s electricity needs and gets plenty of subsidies for it: 3.5 million euros per day. Like the British, the EU is also promoting the conversion of coal-fired power plants to wood – with its Renewable Energies Directive adopted in 2009. Taxes on CO2 emissions from fossil energy are rising, but wood-burning is exempt.
Coal plants across Europe are converting to wood pellets
Several power plants in the Netherlands and Denmark have already converted from coal to wood. French power plant operator Veolia has just announced that it is converting a coal-fired power plant in Hungary over to biomass. German power plant operators are currently still hesitant. The operators of the Onyx coal-fired power plant in Wilhelmshaven are considering burning 2.9 million tons of pellets annually. Vattenfall’s power plant in Berlin’s Moabit district is to be converted; and the East German energy company LEAG has already bought two pelleting companies.”
US forests being cut down largescale to make Europe “green”
Wood pellets come to a good part from the USA. In this context, once again the reference to the US documentary Burned. It is about forest loss in the southwestern United States. A review of the film has already been presented in this blog 2020. The documentary has lost none of its topicality.
“… the US documentary Burned. It is about forest loss in the southwestern United States. ”
The trees being cut and sent to Europe are, I believe, from the US southeast, not the west.
I don’t know what the documentary says.
North Carolina mainly, IIRC
“Europe massively subsidizing a forest-destroying energy source”
Insanity at work, may God help us.
And it doesn’t reduce CO2 emissions at all.
Drax admitted that wood burning resulted in an overall increase of 32%.
One thing I have noticed in my 69 years on this planet is that trees tend to burn faster than they grow. Has anyone else noticed this?
Forests sure are disappearing in a hurry. I’ve seen the before and after satellite photos. Don’t tell me stripping that much forest land doesn’t affect the climate, but raising CO2 levels from 0.030% of the atmosphere to 0.042% does. It’s just a trace gas.
Let’s see… A CO2 level of 0.042% of our atmosphere is considered to be responsible for climate change. However, the 6 major anthropogenic air pollutants and all the forest land that has been cleared all around the globe to make room for roads, buildings, crop fields, solar panels, and wind farms is irrelevant? Some serious math and a good dose of common sense needs to be applied here.
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“Nearly nine million tons of pellets per year are burned by the Drax power plant”.
A bit less than 700 cords of wood burnt up in an HOUR.
1.5 tons of pellets = 1 cord = 20,000,000 btu..
Power output..4,000 MW = 13,648,569,800.492 Btu/h= 680 cords/hr
I hate the entire biofuel program!
“BURNED” link goes to Michael Moore’s Planet of the Humans.
Very good article