Refined wood fuels the ‘ideal alternative’
Sustainable Energy Ireland chief executive David Taylor said that by 2020, refined wood fuels could be meeting 3-5% of heating needs and contributing about €70 million a year to the rural economy.
He was announcing details of the forthcoming Wood Energy 2005 conference and study tour, which will take place at Druid’s Glen, Co Wicklow, on May 19-20, with SEI and the National Council for Forest Research and Development as organisers.
Mr Taylor said that given the continued threat of climate change, the volatility of oil prices, Ireland’s rising energy demands and the need to find additional secure and affordable sources of energy, refined wood fuels in the form of pellets are an attractive fuel for the heating market.
He said the development of a wood energy industry could also play a significant role in rural regeneration, putting millions of euro back into rural economies.
In the future many towns could have a wood power plant - managed and maintained with local labour and powered by locally grown wood, and locally produced wood pellets and chips.
Leading wood energy technology experts from Ireland, Austria, Germany, Finland and Denmark, will address the conference.
COFORD director Dr Eugene Hendrick said refined fuels such as wood pellets offer many advantages, being compact, clean, easy to store, and they have a very high energy content.
