Forestry waste could power North
A study shows most of Northland’s manufacturing energy can be derived from biomass, reports.
Unused wood from Northland’s forests could provide 99 per cent of the energy needed for the region’s manufacturing sector by 2037. A new study by the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA) shows the significant role forestry residues could play to reduce the region’s reliance on fossil fuels.
The resulting report by the Northland Regional Energy Transition Accelerator (RETA) says locally sourced biomass — wood fuel made from forestry residue — could meet almost all the region’s manufacturing needs for heat and cut carbon emissions.
“Forestry owners and biomass suppliers in Northland can expect significant demand for wood residues locally as the region looks toward new, lower-emissions energy solutions for industrial processing,” EECA group manager business Nicki Sutherland said.
“On the energy-user side, the tech we need — like biomass boilers that use wood residues for fuel — has been proven and available for a number of years now.
“When you combine this with the fact there is a lot of unutilised wood residue in the region’s forests that is not being exported, it is clear there is significant commercial opportunity for wood processors.”
Sutherland said the region also has a relatively high amount of spare electrical capacity to accommodate higher anticipated demand from fuelswitching projects.
“Because of this capacity, capital connection costs are relatively low,” she said.
The 18 dairy, industrial and commercial sites looked at collectively consume 4471 terajoules of process heat energy and emit 262,000 tonnes of CO2 a year, with 147,000 tonnes coming from burning coal. RETA aims to eliminate as much of these process heat emissions as possible.
Sutherland said the focus of the report was the key role demand reduction played in enabling fuel switching. Both biomass and electricity were considered as potential fuel sources.
She said RETA also recognised the importance of demand reduction and thermal efficiency measures for reducing energy consumption and right sizing the boiler investment, which in turn affects decision-making around fuel switching.
Head of investment and infrastructure at Northland Inc, Vaughan Cooper, said the RETA gave local energy users and suppliers confidence to move forward and find opportunities to work together.
“It can be a bit daunting trying to work out where to start with your approach to clean energy use, renewable choices and carbon implications and how these can be built into your business operations,” Cooper said.
“It highlights opportunities to create greater resilience amongst some of Northland’s key sectors, such as forestry, through identifying areas for potential diversification.”
Northland regional manager for CFG Forest Managers and member of the Northland Wood Council, Matt Pedersen, said the RETA process was valuable to the sector as it brought key industry people into the same room to discuss a range of issues.
“Forestry needs an economically viable outlet for the fibre that will be used in new or existing biofuel systems. It is good to understand the constraints different industries face and not to feel specific issues are ignored,” Pedersen said.
“Scale will be the largest driver of the viability of new projects and any processor of any scale can retrofit this tech into their systems and utilise fully their own outputs or sell into the wider market. This will require broad pan-industry planning to ensure growth is sustainable and not cut short due to unforeseen constraints,” he said.