In the information era, the lack of information is a choice.
Is wood the best fuel to generate electricity? Despite wood’s low energy density and high cost, utilities in the US and abroad are switching from coal to wood to produce electrical power. The switch to wood is driven by regulations from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and other international organizations. These regulations are based on the false assumption that burning wood reduces carbon dioxide emissions.
In July, Dominion Virginia Power completed conversion of its Altavista Power Station to biomass fuel, the first of three planned facility conversions at a total cost of $165 million. The change was lauded as a method to “help to meet Virginia’s renewable energy goal.” Virginia citizens paid for the conversion and will pay higher electricity bills in the future.
Under pressure, some of the Continent’s coal-burning power plants are switching to wood.
But Europe doesn’t have enough forests to chop for fuel, and in those it does have, many restrictions apply. So Europe’s power plants are devouring wood from the U.S., where forests are bigger and restrictions fewer.
If Europe’s goal is to reduce carbon emissions, “it doesn’t make any sense to cut down the trees that are sequestering carbon,” said Debbie Hammel, a resource specialist at the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Here are some statistics.
In USA there are 222 wood burning power plants ( 180 that are operational at this moment and the rest and proposed and planned)
In UK there are 43 wood power station and 14 proposed and planned.
In wood pellets, Korea has implemented a programe that covers the construction of eight new pellet plants. In addition, with only limited opportunities to generate feedstock from its domestic sawmilling industry, the government has set a goal of importing 5 million tonnes of pellets by 2020. By then, 75-80 percent of pellets consumed in the country are expected to be imported.
South Korea’s energy companies have been exploring opportunities to import pellets from Australia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Canada and the US. In July 2012, Korea Electric Power (KEP) set out to become the first to buy wood pellets to meet its renewable energy quota with a tender for 15,000 tonnes.
In Japan, solar is expected to far outshine other renewable technologies. Yet biomass featured in the feed-in tariffs (FiTs) introduced on 1 July 2012, amid talk from Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Yukio Edano of ‘the first year of renewable energy’.
So my conclusion is that we as society have a plan for cutting forest and not one for reforestation.
First there should be awareness of the massive planned forest destruction that is happening.
Then a critical mass of population should reject the idea that forest is a resource that can be destroyed without consequences on the human life.
We are asking the questions if the taxes imposed on countries governments at the expense of the forest for gas emission is the right solution adopted in mass production of energy. Would the money be better spend in research and application of production of energy without consumption of matter as invented by Nicola Tesla? The technology is there, more can be invented and developed by the universities that are all over the planet. The will and the money should follow.
Blog 116-365
Environment and Society 