HIGHLAND WOOD FUEL PROJECT FIRES UP
(To develop local angles to this story, see Media Contacts at end.)
The Scottish Executive has welcomed the launch by Forestry Commission Scotland of a £1 million project that could see numerous buildings in the Highlands and Islands heated by wood chips from local forests instead of oil, coal or gas.
Over the next two years qualifying businesses and organisations will be able to receive grants from the project fund to help with the costs of installing wood-burning boilers. Wood chip suppliers, such as sawmills and forest owners, will also be able to receive grants, to help with the costs of installing the necessary equipment to enable them to supply the market.
The Woodfuel Development Programme in the Highlands was developed by the Highlands & Islands Wood Fuel Group. It will use £216,900 from the European Regional Development Fund to help get boilers installed at a range of buildings, such as those owned by small and medium-sized businesses and community groups.
The EU grant will be supplemented by match-funding from Highlands & Islands Enterprise and funding from the Scottish Community & Householder Renewables Initiative (SCHRI), which is sponsored by the Scottish Executive. As a result, building owners and wood chip suppliers will have a grants fund worth nearly half a million pounds available to draw on. Their own, matching contributions towards the costs will bring the project value up to nearly £1 million.
The fund will help building owners with the costs of installing boilers, boiler houses, and hoppers with which to feed wood chips into the boilers. It will also help wood chip suppliers to buy and install the equipment, such as chippers, grading equipment, drying sheds and specialised transporters, that they need to supply customers with chips.
Welcoming the project launch, Mr Wilson said,
"This project is excellent news both for the forestry and timber industries in the Highlands and Islands, and for our drive to provide as much as possible of Scotland's energy from renewable, environmentally friendly sources.
"There is already a small wood-fuel industry in the Highlands and Islands, but I am delighted that this project will help us to give it the boost it needs to get itself on to a sustainable footing. It will help us to stimulate another market for forest owners' products, and to add new jobs and business opportunities for local people.
"In many cases the wood-powered heating systems will replace systems that currently use fossil fuels such as oil, coal or gas. Fossil fuel reserves cannot be replaced once they are used up, but Scotland's forests are constantly being replaced as they are harvested. Therefore there is no nett increase in carbon emissions to the atmosphere from burning wood, and nor does burning wood from our sustainably managed forests deplete the Earth's resources."
The chips are made from the "co-products" produced by sawmills, such as the outer parts of logs that are being sawn into planks, and from "low-grade" wood from forestry operations.
The Highlands & Islands Wood Fuel Group comprises Forestry Commission Scotland, Highlands & Islands Enterprise, Highland Council, Argyll & Bute Council, ALIenergy, the Forestry & Timber Association, Communities Scotland, Highland Birchwoods, North Highland Forest Trust and Scottish Natural Heritage.
Forestry Commission Scotland has appointed a project officer, Rebecca Carr, to help and advise applicants, and to help bring suppliers and customers together in local "clusters". Ms Carr will work closely with the Community Energy Unit and ALIenergy, which administers the SCHRI, to develop a sustainable woodfuel market, including communities and local businesses. She is based at the Commission's office in Dingwall, and can be contacted on 01349 866004; mobile: 07717 618650; e-mail: rebecca.carr@forestry.gsi.gov.uk
NOTES TO EDITOR:
- The Scottish Executive is committed to increasing Scotland's energy production from renewable sources to 40 per cent of the total by 2020.
- Burning wood releases carbon into the atmosphere. However, if the wood fuel is produced in sustainably managed forests and it replaces fossils fuels, it can reduce atmospheric carbon. This is because the new trees that are planted to replace the wood that is burnt reabsorb the carbon from the atmosphere in a perpetual, balanced cycle. This cycle does not exist in the case of fossil fuels, so that burning them results in increasing quantities of carbon in the atmosphere.
- Modern, wood-fired boilers can be used for both space and water heating. They are especially suited to buildings with a constant demand for heat, such as hotels, offices, schools, hospitals, care homes and factories. They can be fed with chips from automated hoppers that only need refilling at intervals ranging from a few days to more than a week, depending on their size.
- Scotland's wood supply is growing and there is considerable capacity to expand the use of wood chips for fuel. Wood production is set to grow from about 5 million tonnes at present to nearly 10 million tonnes by 2020 as new forests planted in the late 20th century reach maturity and are harvested for the first time.
- Wood fuel heating is a tried and tested technology, especially in Scandinavia and Austria. For example, wood supplies more than 20 per cent of Finland's primary energy consumption.
- The Highlands & Islands Special Transitional Programme is part of the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). The project received funding under the ERDF's Priority 2 - "Creating the Conditions for Regional Competitiveness, Measure 3 - Improvement of provision of energy networks, energy efficiency and sustainable exploitation of renewable energy potential".
- The Forestry & Timber Association represents forest owners and managers.
- Forestry Commission Scotland serves as the Scottish Executive's forestry department. It manages nearly 667,000 hectares of national forest land owned by Scottish Ministers to provide multiple benefits including public recreation, timber production and nature conservation; supports other woodland owners with grants, felling licences, advice and regulation; and advises Ministers on forestry policy.
MEDIA CONTACTS:
- Forestry Commission Scotland :
Rebecca Carr, project officer, 01349 866004, mobile 07717 618650, who can help with local angles
Charlton Clark, press office, 0131 314 6507; mobile 07810 181067;
Bob Dunsmore, Highland Conservator of Forests, 01349 862144.
- Highlands & Islands Enterprise – Stan Arnaud, communications department, 01463 244244; e-mail: stan.arnaud@hient.co.uk
e-mail: charlton.clark@forestry.gsi.gov.uk |