Opportunities to generate electricity from biomass are being pursued by companies and governments throughout Europe and throughout the world. In the UK, due to a combination of fairly unique political, geographical and economic conditions, interest in biomass power has arguably become most intense. Projects to build up to 6-7GWe of biomass electricity generating capacity in the UK are currently being considered by utilities and project developers. 

Even if a number of these projects never leave the drawing board, those that are completed could transform the UK into the world’s biggest biomass market, overtaking Japan whose pulp and paper industry has for years dominated the world market for woodchips. 

Not all of the feedstock will be in the form of wood and not all of it will be imported: energy crops, waste wood and non-wood biomass, will play a role. More wood will be sourced from British forests too. Nevertheless, most of the new plants are designed primarily to use wood chips or pellets and they are located on the coast specifically to receive imports. Securing a sustainable source of biomass feedstock presents challenges for the electricity generators and for the whole biomass supply chain. 

The report is a high-level strategic assessment of the commercial implications of the UK’s planned investments in biomass power. The main focus is the feedstock implications of these investments, but wider issues such as developments in the UK electricity market and the outlook for UK/EU energy and environmental policy drivers are examined. The operation of the UK’s support mechanisms is explained. 

The report includes profiles of 28 biomass power projects and assesses their likely feedstock requirements, individually and collectively. 

The report analyses the availability of solid biomass feedstock in the UK – including woody biomass, straw and other agricultural waste etc. – and presents forecasts of the UK’s demand for imported biomass, including separate forecasts for wood chips and wood pellets and other forms of biomass feedstock. 

The availability of biomass in likely supply regions worldwide will be assessed and factors that will influence trade flows are examined, including phytosanitary regulations, logistic infrastructure, etc. 

The constraints and risks (including political, financial, logistics, technology and feedstock risks) are discussed in depth. 

This 138 page report begins by discussing trends in the UK electricity market and the factors driving energy policy in the UK; namely, supply security, climate change and renewable energy targets. 

It proceeds, in Chapter 2, to examine the regulatory instruments that are designed to incentivise investment in renewable energy. The chapter ends by highlighting the policy changes to watch for from the UK’s new coalition government. 

Chapter 3 discusses the status of the larger (>50GWe) biomass power projects in the UK and includes detailed profiles of twenty-eight of them. 

It continues, in Chapter 4, to assess the feedstock requirements of these projects, in terms of volume, form and likely source. 

The availability of biomass from UK sources is the main subject of Chapter 5 which assesses the current and future size of the market and the competing claims of existing end-use industries. Given the high import dependency of most of the large biomass power projects, the chapter also examines the global availability of biomass and concludes with profiles of some of the most promising offshore sources of feedstock for a UK plant. 

In the final chapter we assess the constraints and risks – particularly those concerning politics, finance, technology, logistics and, especially, feedstock – which are, to varying degrees, holding back the development of biomass power in the UK and which investors in the different projects are struggling to overcome. 

The detailed Table of Contents, together with lists of the report’s Tables and Figures can be downloaded using the links at the bottom of this page. 

This report is intended for everyone who requires an objective independent assessment of the many investments in biomass power that are being proposed in the United Kingdom. 

This includes electricity utilities and project developers, forest owners, wood pellet manufacturers, shipping companies and port operators, biomass trading companies, financial institutions, equipment suppliers, government departments and agencies, and environmental NGOs. 

This report is available immediately. A subscription costs £3,500 (or the equivalent in euro or US dollars). Subscribers to Hawkins Wright’s Forest Energy Monitor report qualify for a discounted price of £3,200. 

This price includes: a printed copy of the report; a PDF copy; and a presentation meeting with the authors in London. If a meeting is requested elsewhere a charge may be made for staff travel and subsistence costs. Further copies of the report may be purchased at a nominal charge. 

Details of the scope and content of the report, and a order form, can be downloaded here

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