What is wood energy?

Wood energy is energy produced from wood and/or wood by-products. It is a home-grown, renewable, sustainable, carbon-neutral and secure source of heat, electricity and bio-fuel.

Ireland has excellent wood growing conditions: growing and using wood as a source of energy can make Ireland less dependent on international energy prices. While modern wood-fuelled heating systems offer the same level of comfort, convenience and reliability as oil or gas boiler systems.

The use of wood to provide heat has great potential in Ireland.Wood as a source of heat only (rather than the production of electricity) has the largest potential in Ireland: this is a proven technology with very high efficiency and is locally available on a small scale. It is likely that in the not-so-distant future, demand for wood fuel will increase dramatically as it becomes more competitive against all other heat forms (oil, gas, etc.).

Wood is a form of biomass produced from organic material. Other forms of non-woody biomass used for energy purposes include Miscanthus (elephant grass), animal wastes,municipal waste products, rape and maize. These are also sometimes referred to as ‘bioenergy’ or ‘biofuel’.

Spiralling oil prices remind us that we are gradually running out of fossil fuels such as oil, gas and coal. Burning fossil fuels releases huge amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere trapping the sun’s heat (greenhouse effect). This has led to global warming, a major cause of serious environmental damage.

In contrast however, using wood as a source of energy does not contribute to global warming because CO2 released during the wood burning process is equal to the amount of CO2 taken out of the atmosphere during tree growth through photosynthesis. Even by taking harvesting, processing, etc. of wood fuel into account, CO2 emissions are reduced by more than 90%.

Farmers as wood fuel growers?

Irish farmers growing energy as a crop isn’t as mad as it sounds. Many farmers are doing this already throughout Europe. And we only need to go back a few decades when 20% of the agricultural land in Ireland was devoted to growing fuel: oats to “fuel” horses pulling the plough, before tractors (and fossil fuel) took over.

If the same trend takes place as in other European countries, then energy crops may well displace food crops on Irish farms. Ireland imports more than 90% of its energy with energy demand increasing by approx. 5% per year. This makes Ireland the most energy import-dependent country in Europe and therefore the most vulnerable.Wood energy will assist substantially in reducing the amount of imported fossil fuel, increasing our self-sufficiency and therefore securing Ireland’s long-term energy security.

Energy wood is a real and secure opportunity. Farmers are in a good position to benefit: both as growers of energy wood and as users of cost-effective wood energy. Ireland’s soil and climatic conditions are excellent for timber growth. Sawlog (large diameter wood) is and will remain for the foreseeable future the most profitable product that a farm forest can produce. Sawlog can be produced quicker by carrying out thinning. Large volumes of pulpwood (smaller diameter wood) are produced in earlier thinnings. Local energy wood markets need this pulpwood and will make these thinnings more financially viable, particularly for smaller plantations.

Changing farm conditions may also give landowners the opportunity to produce wood fuel as a main crop.

The complete booklet is available to download Acrobat PDF (1.2Mb) format.