Scraps from U.S. saw mills help to power Europe
Wood pellets made in the South are a source of electricity overseas
Certain Southern states might be known for oil and gas production, but the region also is a major producer ofalesser-knownenergy source: woodpellets.
The South this year was the nation’s biggest producer of woodpellets, accounting for about 75 percent of the 3.1 million tons of pellets that are made from scraps from sawmills, logging operations and other wood product manufacturing, according to the Energy Department. Nearly all woodpellets produced in theregion are exported overseas, primarily to Europe,wherethey are burned for utility-scale electricity generation.
Europe accounts for 85 percent of the world’ s wood pellet use. TheU.S. is the world’s biggest woodpellet exporter.
Wood pellets are considered biomass, renewable fuels made from plants and other organic material. Biomass, whichinclude fuels such as ethanol, biodiesel and methane, accounts for about 5 percent of U.S. energy production. In the Northeast, woodpellets are the fuel for efficient stoves usedtoheathomes.
Themaincustomers, however, are utilities in the United Kingdom, Belgium and the Netherlands. Most of the wood pellets made in the U.S. head to the Dr ax Power Plant in northernEngland.
U.S. sales andproduction of woodpellets shot up after Europecreated a clean energystandard toreduce carbon emissions and promote renewable energy. In 2002, the United Kingdom set the goal of having 15 percent of energy come fromrenewablesby2020, andcoal-firedpowerplants started using woodpellets to meet the standard.
Plants wereretrofitted to burn both coal and wood pellets, whichcritics say does little to reduce carbon emissions. The Southern Environmental Law Center, anadvocacy groupthatfocuses onthe Southern states, discourages burning wood pellets, which, unlike wind andsolarenergy, produce carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxide anddust particles that can be harmful to human health.
Nonetheless, since 2013, the Dr ax power plant in Leeds, England, hasdriven the demand for wood pellets, buying more than 80 percent of U.S. exports of woodpellets, according to the Energy Department. Asubsidiary of Dr ax own sand operates twowoodpellet plantsin the South, one in Louisiana and one in Mississippi.
The region has the most capacity to produce nearly 11 million tons a year, accounting for about 80percent of the capacity nationwide. Texas plays a small role in that — the state has two wood pellet production plants, both northeast of Houston, close to the Louisiana border. This year, the South produced nearly all of the pellets destined for utility-scale powergeneration plants, according to the EnergyDepartment.
In the U.S., the East produced mostof the pellets used for heating, about 61 percent, the Energy Department said. The South produced about 17 percent of heating pellets. ryan.handy@chron.com twitter.com/ryanmhandy
This year, the South produced nearly all of the pellets destined for utility-scale power generation plants.