UK imports wood to fuel power plants

The UK is set to plunder tropical forests just to fuel its power stations.

According to the Forestry Commission, the growing number of planned biomass-powered plants in the UK will surge timber imports by 150 per cent, from 20 million tonnes this year to 50 million by 2015.

A new biomass plant to be built by 2012 at Port Talbot in South Wales, for example, will need three million tonnes of timber per year, equivalent to 30 per cent of the country’s yearly wood harvest of 10 million tonnes. In addition, at least four more 300MWh stations are planned to be built in the UK. Energy project developer MGT proposed to construct one plant at Teesside; while three sites in Yorkshire were projected by Drax, operator of the country’s largest coal-fired power plant.

Currently, UK power plants are starting to ship wood from Brazil, Canada, Scandinavia and South Korea to meet their growing demand for timber. However, environmental activists have voiced their concerns about importing wood from abroad. They informed that for woodcutters to meet the UK’s pest control policy, the timbers need to be baked prior to shipment, a process that will emit huge amounts of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere.

Meanwhile, Gavin Adkins, Chairman of the Wood Panel Industry Federation, warned that UK families could face rising prices on various wood-based products if the biomass sector will keep on using virgin timber for fuel instead of waste lumber. He further added that an estimated 4.5 million tonnes of waste wood are landfilled annually in the UK.