to read the full report - Ecolateral by Peter Jones

Evaluation of Opportunities for Converting Indigenous UK Wastes to Wastes and Energy
AEA/ED45551/Issue 1
Table 26 Annual production of potential operationally available forestry residue by UK region within the
Forestry Commission and private sector area (not considering existing industries.)
Region Forestry and
Woodland
Residue (odt pa)
East Midlands 53,046
East of England 70,489
North East 82,956
North West 86,063
South East and London 94,994
South West 125,633
West Midlands 41,966
Yorkshire and Humberside 63,285
England Total 618,432
Scotland 848,345
Wales 607,701
Northern Ireland 101 83,860
UK Total 2,074,478
Although arising data is available for round-wood with diameters
greater than 7cm, these are more likely to be used for products and
they are not included in this report as a forestry residue.
These estimates do not take economic feasibility into account. For example, resource is not excluded on
the basis that it may be too expensive. The actual availability is likely to change over time, dependent on
a host of factors - including financial support, infrastructure and incentives, transportation costs,
accessibility, harvesting costs, timber prices, and prices of competing co-product markets.
In a separate estimate the Forestry Commission estimate that, of the total available resource, 10% of the
small round-wood and 100% of poor quality stem-wood, stem tips and branches could be made available
to new wood fuel projects without serious disruption to existing wood-using industries. 97 These
percentages are applied in the latter part of this chapter to calculate the available forestry residues in the
presence of existing industries.
The figures in Table 26 allow a comparative assessment of the forestry and woodlands residues available
for regions in the UK. However regional strategies may provide a better understanding of the most recent
data on the arisings from specific regions, and several regions have produced such strategies. The
criteria and assumptions used for the various strategies differ, which makes direct comparisons difficult,
and thus it has not been attempted here.
An alternative method to establish forestry residue is to use estimates of residue production per hectare.
The two key types of woodland give rise to different levels of residue: 102
• Conifer residue: approximately 1.5 odt per hectare per annum (odt/ha pa)
• Broad-leaved residue: approximately 0.4 odt per hectare per annum (odt/ha pa).
Using these assumptions gives a similar, although higher, estimate of woodland residues, as compared to
Table 26. This is likely due to the wider scope of such an estimate – unlike that of McKay et al (2003), it
includes forests managed by government departments, such as the Ministry of Defence and woodland
owned by non-governmental organisations.
101
Northern Ireland data derived using an alternative method estimated from the assumption of the residue available relative to the forestry area as
specified in Table.28.
102
'UK industry wood fuel resource study: England, Wales and Scotland
61