Woodfuel
impact of forestry.
The increasing cost of oil, gas and electricity, as well as environmental concerns, have focussed the attention of government and communities to renewable energy sources, of which one of the most important is woodfuel.
In order not to increase the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere it is important that the wood burned as a fuel comes from sustainable sources. This means that as trees are felled to be used as a fuel, more trees should be planted. That way, the carbon released during the combustion of the wood is reabsorbed by the new trees growing and the process is carbon neutral.
Other examples of sustainable sources of wood include forest residues (what is left over after timber has been extracted), tree surgery waste and other wood residue. Wood can then be used as logs, wood chip and wood pellets in wood/pellet burning stoves or wood chip/pellet boilers for space and water heating. Highly efficient wood-burning boilers have been in use in Scandinavia and central Europe for many years.
Tarryblake Estate fulfils all the criteria for woodfuel production - active forestry conforming to best practice (FSC certified) standards, replanting, utilisation of waste wood from both forestry and saw-milling.
Therefore in 2006, with the assistance of an S11 grant (Developing Farm Woodland Energy) from the Forestry Commission, we purchased a Heizohack 5-300 chipper from Farm & Forestry Equipment, Ardesier. Coincidentally, with a grant from SCHRI, we installed, with the assistance of Highland Wood Energy, Fort William, a Finnish Veto boiler at Tarryblake House. This now provides us with hot water and central heating at considerable savings of both oil and electricity.
central heating.
We now have dry (moisture content ~20%) chips for boilers and plenty of timber drying for chipping. We have also sold some for landscaping and now have access to bark for the same purpose. In addition we do contract chipping within a reasonable distance.
