What is The Wood Energy Group?

The Wood Energy Group (TWEG) is an advisory group of about 30 international experts from over 13 countries, with practical and commercial expertise across the various sectors within the bioenergy industry. TWEG provides information that covers all bioenergy technologies, and will soon produce a directory of bioenergy businesses and consultants.

What is The Wood Energy Group’s main mission?

To provide authoritative and independent information about what is happening around the world in bioenergy in order to promote its growth in Australia. Bioenergy is largely overlooked in Australia, and TWEG attempts to change this and correct misinformation about bioenergy when it appears.

Compared to other forms of renewable energy, how cost effective is bioenergy?

Bioenergy is one of the most cost-effective forms of production of non-hydro renewable electricity. Combined heat and power (CHP) plants fuelled by biomass can operate at scales of up to 500 megawatt electrical (MW-e) rated capacity. Bioenergy includes heat energy, electricity, and liquid and gas biofuels. It is also beginning to extend into the area of biorefineries, where substitutes for petrochemicals can be produced. Often, since two, three or all of these various bioenergy products are produced in one plant, it is not easy to put a value on each, or an overall value.

However, when a biomass fuelled CHP plant of over 25 MW-e is built, the capital cost is about $3.5-4 million per MW-e capacity. Production in modern CHP plants is commonly over 90 per cent of capacity and so this allows a comparison with solar (which has a production capacity of 16-20 per cent) and wind (which has a production capacity of 25-30 per cent).

On this basis, electricity production from biomass on a capital cost basis is more than comparable with renewable energy candidates, such as solar and wind. Added to this are other factors such as that bioenergy can provide base load energy and is made in plants with a small carbon footprint. It also uses residues and wastes that otherwise may be valueless, and can be the main source of substitutes for fossil transport fuels.

What sort of potential does bioenergy have in Australia?

A recent CSIRO report suggests that, based on the current availability of biomass as agricultural, forestry and industry waste and residues (including municipal combustible and putrescibles waste), biomass could provide up to 20 per cent of Australia's current electricity needs.

Looking at how bioenergy has developed in Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Austria, Brazil, India, China, Poland and elsewhere, there is obvious potential in Australia for a significant portion of our heat, cooling, and transport fuel needs to be sourced from available biomass. Overall, as in Sweden at present, it is possible in Australia for biomass to be the source of up to 30 per cent of our total primary energy.

Why do you think bioenergy doesn’t attract the same sort of attention in Australia as solar and wind energy?

Solar and wind energy are simple to explain and photogenic, hence their popularity. The development of biomass has unfortunately been blocked for decades by various groups who presently hold real political influence in Australia. Such groups have campaigned to block the use of native forest timber and the timber processing industry residues from the native forest sector. In doing this, the coherent development of all sectors of bioenergy has either been blocked or impeded, despite the fact that native forest harvest and processing residues are only a small fraction of the total available biomass.

As a result of this, we have found ourselves with policies and a general public mindset that does not give the same recognition to bioenergy that it receives almost everywhere else in the world. Many countries have put a lot of effort into developing bioenergy technologies and we could access these technologies as off-the-shelf products. New Zealand is the closest of these, with a flourishing wood pellet industry and stove and furnace manufacturing sector.

Are there any upcoming developments The Wood Energy Group is particularly excited about being involved in?

TWEG is presently the only Australian full member of the World Bioenergy Association (WBA). TWEG strongly supports the work of the WBA in the development of the criteria and systems for certification of sustainably produced biomass and biofuels. Development of this certification process is the key to preventing biomass or biofuels coming from less sustainable practices, or from countries where deforestation is rife.