'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?
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