ALTENER Bioenergy in Finland - AFB-NET Project under the ALTENER Programme

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Bioenergy in Finland : AFB NETT project under the ALTENER programme

Introduction

This report summarises the current and potential use of biomass and peat in Finland as well as identifying potential barriers to increased future use and the implementation of schemes based on purpose grown energy crops. The Finnish energy production system is based on variety of energy sources. During the last few decades the proportion of oil used has decreased significantly as new energy sources, including renewable energy on a smaller scale, have been adopted. As a result bioenergy contributes about 20% of the national energy demand, which is among the highest in industrialized countries. Biomass is mostly used in multifuel boilers using advanced fluidized bed combustion technology. Forest residues have the greatest potential for increasing biomass use, but their competitiveness is poor compared to coal and other fossil fuels. An increased use of bioenergy has been part of Finnish energy policy for some twenty years and the Finnish Council of State decided, in April 1994, to adopt an action programme for the promotion of bioenergy. The target is to increase the use of bioenergy by at least one quarter by the year 2005. The estimated potential for additional production for biomass is around 7.6 million toe. Public aid will be needed to strengthen the market position of the fuels involved. Energy taxation and investment subsidies would continue to be the central forms of aid.

Background

In Finland the Ministry of Trade and Industry has the main responsibility for national energy policy, including bioenergy affairs. Sectors of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF) also have responsibilities in bioenergy development, dealing with the primary production phase (e.g. non wood crops production technologies, forest production technologies, wood cutting and transport, financial and advisory support to farmers entering into bioenergy production etc.). Other organisations involved in biomass production and use (expect peat) are young, and vary in quality. Some of the fuel processing equipment are prototypes. There are no mature technologies nor procedures for reliable fuel quality control. The nature of agreements between fuel producers and users can vary case by case. The properties of the wood fuel available also varies widely, especially in respect to moisture content and particle size distribution.

Forest residues

In Finland the proportion of wood in overall energy usage is currently the highest among all industrialized countries amounting to 14.5 % (including black liquor) of overall energy consumption. However, a considerable amount of useful wood is left in the forests, and cannot be exploited at a competitive price with present techniques. Finland's forestry land area is 26.3 million ha, which is 78 % of Finland's total area, holding 1,880 million m³, with an annual growth of around 130 million m3. The energy content of potential forest residues (51 million m³ pa) is estimated at about 10 million toe (40.6 PJ). Industry uses about 40 % (50 million m³ pa) of the yearly growth of forest biomass. The wood in end products is about 65 % of the biomass of the tree (29 million m³). About 25 million m3 or 45 % of wood and bark is used for the production of energy ,in a solid or liquid form, corresponding to 4.6 million toe, 186 PJ (black liquors, waste wood and fire wood).

Barriers to energy crops

One of the most significant barriers to a more extensive energy use of biomass is the high price compared with competing fuels, like coal and oil, as well as the proportionally high investment costs of a power or heating plant. Plants that use wood fuels or various wastes are typically smaller in size i.e. 10-100 MW in thermal capacity. The capital cost of solid fuel fired power plants are much higher than those of gas or oil fired plants. As the plant size increases, the economy of solid fuel plants become a more attractive economy of scale. Biofuelled plants need to be large, which may conflict with the rather low availability of fuel. The smaller capacity level with a conventional coupling of boiler and steam turbine, which so far has proved to be economic, is 5 MW, with 15-20 % investment subsidies. The costs of the plants has decreased considerably during the last few years. Moderate operating specifications and design requirements can be cited as the main reasons along with simplified construction of boiler and building when compared to large power plants. Most biomass projects encounter competition with peat, a fuel widely available throughout most of the country and is the only indigenous fuel which can at present compete with coal. Wood chips are usually used as an additional fuel and purchased at marginal price. This makes it difficult for wood chips to be competitive with other fuels until the markets are well developed. The potential is shown in the following table.

Potential for biomass in Utilization in Finland, Mtoe/a (10⁶ GJ) based on estimates by VTT.