WoodFuel Information

Highland Birchwoods have been actively involved in encouraging the development of local woodfuel markets at the small and medium scale for several years, and have managed several projects in this area.

Our interest in woodfuel arises from its potential to produce renewable energy from a sustainable resource, and the wider benefits that local woodfuel use can bring to communities and the environment.

Woodfuel Heating Solutions for Business

Information and presentations from the Woodfuel Solutions Seminar held in Keith on the 2nd September 2008. ►

Northern WoodHeat – Developing woodfuel supply chains at the small and medium scale

Northern WoodHeat was funded by the Northern Periphery Programme and managed by Highland Birchwoods. It aimed to encourage the development of sustainable woodfuel supply chains at the small and medium scale and had sixteen partners in Scotland, Iceland and Finland.

All three of these countries have much to gain from locally-centred, sustainable woodfuel markets; they all currently have difficulty maintaining thinning programmes, and all have locally significant and under-exploited forest resources in peripheral areas remote from existing markets.

The three countries, however, are at varying stages of woodfuel development: in Finland woodfuel is extremely widely used, with 20% of all energy production coming from wood, in Scotland the woodfuel industry is in its early stages but growing fast, and in Iceland woodfuel is almost entirely undeveloped.

Northern WoodHeat’s partners included state forestry organisations, educational and research institutions, private enterprises, local authorities and community groups thus representing a comprehensive range of interests in the woodfuel sector.

Project activities included exploring woodfuel production techniques that work with existing natural resource management goals to create a sustainable, renewable energy resource which optimises local benefits, and producing training programmes aimed at improving woodfuel expertise.

Northern WoodHeat also raised awareness and understanding of the benefits that woodfuel markets can deliver to users, producers, the wider community and the environment. It produced a wide range of publications on all aspects of woodfuel supply – these can be downloaded from the project website (see below)or requested in hard copy from the Highland Birchwoods office.

For more information, please have a look at the project website www.northernwoodheat.net