Wood pellets will cut fuel poverty

IN the chill days and long, wintry nights of January it’s worth noting two startling statistics: around 60,000 Irish households are estimated to live in ongoing fuel poverty and a further 160,000 experience occasional fuel poverty.

At this time of year people are conscious about heating their homes in the most effective and cheapest way possible. Fireside conversations with neighbours and callers inevitably turn to heating systems, with new-fangled fuel sources, such as wood pellets, being talked about increasingly.

Fuel poverty has been defined as the inability to heat a home to a safe and comfortable level because of low household income and poor, energy inefficient housing. Another factor is the need to spend more than 10% of household income on fuel to achieve an acceptable level of comfort.

Many low income householders are unable to afford measures that would improve the energy quality of their homes. As energy prices continue to rise, the numbers of households experiencing fuel poverty could well increase, according to Sustainable Energy Ireland (SEI) whose survey on fuel poverty threw up the statistics mentioned at the outset.

SEI’s low income housing programme was set up to implement a national action plan to systematically address the problem of fuel poverty.

At the core of the plan is the warmer homes scheme which aims to improve the energy efficiency of low-income households. Next step is to get the work carried out, and this is done through regional community-based organisations. The work includes attic insulation, draught proofing, lagging jackets, energy efficient lighting, cavity wall insulation and the giving of energy advice. Wood pellets and chips have been used for home heating in other EU countries,North America and Canada for many years. At present only 2,500 Irish homes and businesses use pellets and, with government departments encouraging people to move away from coal and other fossil fuels, the use of pellets is likely to increase.

Pellets are made from discarded wood materials and shavings, forest thinnings and even waste from municipal dumps. They are regarded as a natural fuel that help reduce harmful emissions to the atmosphere and boost the campaign against global warming.

The other day, Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources Eamon Ryan officially opened a new wood pellet (brites) depot, in Ringa-skiddy, Co Cork, for the Fermanagh-based timber miller, Balcas.

According to Balcas, the opening is the result of an increase in demand for the environmentally-friendly pellets. This is the second plant in Ireland for Balcas which has an 8,000-tonne stock of brites to ensure continuity of supply. The company operates the largest wood pellet mill in the UK and Ireland, producing 50,000 tonnes per year.

As might be expected the minister welcomed better availability of renewable energy sources, and referred to the encouraging take up of the greener homes scheme, which he described as a clear signal to business that more people were opting for renewable energies.

“I firmly believe Ireland can be a world leader in renewable technologies and become the centre of global ‘green energy boom’, and I am delighted that com-panies like Balcas are helping to make this idea a reality,” Mr Ryan stated.

Businesses using wood pellets include hotels, nursing homes, schools, leisure centres, theatres, fire-stations and a prison. The customer base is growing by about 300 per month.

The price of pellets is €221 per tonne. With 500 litres of oil reckoned to equal a tonne of pellets, the cost of pellets works out at about two-thirds that of oil, given that oil is now around 62 cent per litre.

In relation to installation costs — between €7,000 and €10,500 including boiler and pellet store — the promoters point to savings in the long-term. A €3,000 grant is available from SEI for the boiler.

Alternatively, people can buy individual room stoves, which are fed by bags of pellets, for €2,500 to €3,000. An SEI grant of €1,100 is available for the stove.

Modern pellet stoves can be ignited automatically using a device like a TV controller.

Ash levels are extremely low and some boiler units remove the ash automatically. The small amount of ash that is removed is very high in nutrients and can be used as a high grade fertiliser in the garden.

Pellets are neatly packaged, are very clean and can be handled easily without any mess. The only material in the pellets is natural wood: there are no additives or artificial binding agents.