Bioenergies look set to represent a growing share of Finland's energy mix. In a March 2005 resolution, the government decided to double the production of forest-based biomass by 2010.
The current share of biomass in Finland's energy mix is already impressive, covering 20% of the country's energy needs. Nearly all of it is derived from byproducts of the forest industry, such as concentrated liquors and other industrial wood fuels used by the paper industry.
"In 2005 about 3 million cubic metres of forest chips were used for energy production. The objective is to double the use of forest chips by 2010," according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.
"The fastest increase in the energy-use of wood will come from forest chips," says Juha Kosonen, who manages a small power plant at StoraEnso's Imatra paper mills in Eastern Finland.
The wood residues are collected in the forest after the trees have been harvested and stripped of their branches. Until now, they have come at no extra cost for the paper industry.
"Before this summer, the procedure was that [paper] companies like StoraEnso or UPM would not compensate landowners for collecting the wood residues," says Harri Karjalainen from WWF Finland. "But this changed last summer. UPM announced that they would pay landowners for the wood residues and then the others followed."
Although generally welcome, the development of bioenergy is causing unease with the pulp and paper industry which uses wood fibres for paper production and wood residues as a source of energy. With government plans to double bioenergy use, they fear increasing competition for forest products will drive prices up.
"As the price of biomass goes up, it starts to compete with the price of the fibre wood" used in paper production, explains Harri Karjalainen from WWF Finland. "So instead of bringing the harvested wood to the pulp mill, the lorry goes to the energy plant where the trees are burned."
"Industry thinks that you should not use the wood for bioenergy if it cannot be used first for paper or wood products," says Anu Islander from the Finnish Forest Industries Federation. "When you cannot use it anymore, then you can burn," she says. "Bioenergy is a good thing for everybody if you remember that wood must be used in products first".
At StoraEnso's Imatra mills, black liquor (70%) and bark (20%) together cover 90% of fuel needs, the remaining 10% being covered by natural gas. In terms of electricity supply, the mills are self-reliant for 55% of their needs thanks to small-scale integrated power generators running on biomass. The remaining 45% is bought from the grid.
"The mills have used their own energy for a long time," says Islander. "Now, it is rather small and it is not growing so fast". Innovation, she says, will come from biomass used for biofuels production. "There has been innovation and research on biorefinery," says Islander. "It is a new thing that can become very important."
