'Energy from Biomass in the Scottish

Highlands and Islands'

EuroMontana Meeting

19th of November 2009

Mike Weston

Outline

• Introduction to UHI

• Presentation Brief

• Woodfuel in Scotland

• Drivers and Barriers

• Costs and Benefits

• Key lessons

• UHI Activities

UHI Millennium Institute

• Thirteen partners

– Further education

colleges

– Specialist colleges

– Research institutions

• Over 100 outreach

learning centres

• Using technology to

help people learn with

and from each other

Creating the University of the Highlands and Islands

UHI Mission

To be a distinctive and innovative regional university of national and international significance; a university with a pivotal role in the educational, economic, social, cultural and environmental infrastructure of its region and which reaches out to the people of the Highlands and Islands and the rest of the world through its research and teaching.

Energy Research Group

• Focal point for connecting the UHI academic partners

• Encouraging and enabling joint projects in renewable energy

• A key priority is to form a working relationship with local businesses with an interest in energy

Presentation brief

• Potential of biomass

• Advantages of local production

• What is needed to implement

– Within a ‘mountain’ context

Plenty of information available

• >90% renewable energy produced for electricity

• Whilst over 50% energy consumed is for heat

• 1.4% (0.83 TWh) renewable heat energy produced 2009

• Renewable Heat target of 11% by 2020 (6.4TWh)

Renewable energy generation capacity in

Scotland

14th August 2009

0%

0.02%

0.94%

2.53%

3.19%

47.54%

45.79%Wind electricity

Hydro electricity

Energy from waste

Biomass electricity

Biomass heat

Wave electricity

Tidal electricity

Source: SREF Website 2009

Estimated energy use in Scotland Source: FREDS 2008

Energy in Scotland

‘Renewable heat is

simply heat (rather than

electricity) produced from low or zero carbon

renewable sources… contributing to a low

carbon and energy

efficient future’

– FREDS 2008

Shetland Heat and Power

Renewable Heat

Potential

• Scotland’s Climate Change Programme estimates that 0.75m green tonnes of wood will be used for bioenergy

by 2010, rising to 1m green tonnes by 2020

• Of this more than 90% is by major industrial consumers

in plants utilising >10,000 odt/yr

• This equates to ~5% of heating requirements

Potential

Supply & Demand

Bio-derived Sources & Sinks

Biomass

Biogas

Gasification

Fermentation

Anaerobic

digestion

Combustion

Liquefaction

Heat &

Power

Biofuels

Industrial

wastes

Agricultural

Forestry

Construction

Human

wastes

Local

resources

Food

Sewage

What are the drivers?

• Sustainable heating system

• Tackle fuel poverty

• Reduce heating costs

• Reduce carbon footprints

• Improve EPC Ratings

• Create a local industry, create jobs

• Manage the environment

• Participate actively in Research

Technology challenges?

• Logs Handling issues, dryness

• Peat Sustainability at scale?

• Pellets Small domestic market

• Chips 30kW to 5MW

• Waste wood Incinerator, CHP

• Bio-digestor District heating, CHP

• General waste Incinerator, CHP

Generally well proven technologies

Concerns at policy level

• Quality of data/controls on resource

– Waste streams

– Energy crops

– Nutrient loss

• Lack of demonstration sites

• Price variability

• Emergent supply chain

Specific Issues at local level

• ‘Chicken & egg situation’

– No supply chain/ no demand

• ‘Support for feasibility reports’

– Little funding for capital

– Tend to be ‘optimistic’

• ‘Need for collaboration’

Capital Costs

Operation costs

• Base fuel costs can

be significantly lower

but are highly

dependant on the

supply chain

• Logs<Chips<Pellets

150kW Private House

Incentives & Support mechanisms

Introduction

of SBBS

Carbon reduction

Skills development

• Forestry management

• Harvesting

• Heating system design

• Mechanical skills

• Electrical skills

• Civil engineering

• System design

• Business skills

• Education

• Project Management

Job Creation

Megawatt for megawatt, wood fuel heating creates between five and ten times more jobs than other renewable technologies, and also more than nuclear

– Sustainable Development Commission in

Scotland ‘Wood Fuel For Warmth’ 2005

Implementation at local level

• Assess demand profile, heat load of interested parties

• Apply technology which best matches demand profile – Don’t be sidetracked

• Indentify constraints– Local availability– Capital cost of installed system

– Moisture content– Timber extraction

– Sustainability of imported timber

– Time to grow forests (25-35 years)

Advice from wiser heads

• Manage the supply chain

• Manage the pilot boiler installation

• Retain back-up for pilot boiler

• ‘Prepare well, failure is not an option’

Orkney College and experimental farm

• A plant based Research and

Development facility opened in 2002.

• Developing land based opportunities

to improve the economic and social

development of the Highlands and

Islands.

Undertaking research into:

• Developing a wide range crops and

plants for the food, drink or natural

products market

• Developing willow and energy

grasses as biomass crops

Potential fuels from locally grown biomass

Agronomy Institute - Orkney College

Developing biomass energy solutions for Orkney and Shetland

• A European collaboration between Scotland, Sweden,

Iceland and Finland

• Aims to develop local biomass products into energy pellets

as an sustainable, economic alternative to oil based energy

systems

• Supporting energy self-sufficiency of northern peripheral

regions

PelleTime Research Programme

UHI Expertise

• Inverness College/School of Forestry

– GIS mapping of resource and demand

– Demonstration wood chip CHP system

• ERI/NAFC/SAMS

– Anaerobic digestion

• Lews Castle College

– Sustainable island development

• Centre of Mountain Studies

Thank you

Any questions?