When burning wood to generate energy makes climate sense

ABSTRACT

Over the last 20 years, IPPC reports have made it clear that the world must move beyond simply reducing the amount of carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere to actively removing it from the skies. (Solar and wind can reduce carbon emissions, but they do not remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere). New BioEnergy Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) technologies have been emerging that can remove carbon dioxide emissions from the atmosphere and sequester them permanently underground. Indeed, many long-term scenarios for transitioning from today’s fossil fuel-dependent society to a future net zero society hinge on BECCS. But a key question is what bioenergy feedstock to use. In some cases, powering these facilities by burning biomass that comes from plantations in the US South is an option. Consequently, the study of the origins, production, and use of the fuel consumed by the world’s largest biomass-fired power plant in Drax, England, provides a useful case study of the potential advantages and disadvantages of the burning of biomass – wood pellets made from trees, bark, roots, stumps, millwaste, sawdust, and other woody vegetation – in place of fossil fuel to generate power for processes such as BECCS.

KEYWORDS:

• Biomass
• bioenergy carbon capture and storage
• BECCS
• Drax
• carbon emissions
• renewables
• wood pellets

Disclosure statement

As noted in his author biography, Robert Abt has consulted for corporations such as Drax and Enviva, as well as for environmental organizations and government agencies.

Funding

The research for this article received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Funding

The research for this article received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Additional information

Funding

The research for this article received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Notes on contributors

Robert Abt

Robert Abt is professor emeritus at NC State University where he taught natural resource management and forest economics. He has a business degree from Georgia Tech, a master’s in forestry from the University of Tennessee, and a PhD in forest economics from UC Berkeley. His work focuses on the potential impact of bio-energy demand on forest carbon and wood product markets. He has provided analyses on this topic to the National Academy of Sciences, EPA Science Advisory Board, US Energy Department, International Energy Agency and the USDA Forest Service. As a consultant, he has provided analyses for NGOs such as the Environmental Defense Fund, Natural Resources Defense Council, Southern Environmental Law Center, and corporations including Drax and Enviva.

Christopher Galik

Christopher Galik joined NC State in August 2016 in Sustainable Energy Systems and Policy. Galik is an associate professor in the Department of Public Administration, and works at the intersection of public policy, economics, and technology, with an emphasis on energy and environmental governance. He holds a bachelor’s degree in biology from Vassar College, a master’s in resource economics and policy from Duke University, and a Ph.D. in forestry and environmental resources from North Carolina State University.

Justin Baker

Justin Baker is an associate professor of Forest Resource Economics at NC State University and director of the Southern Forest Resource Assessment Consortium. His research focuses on the application of economic models for policy analysis, with an emphasis land use, bioenergy, and climate policy. He holds a bachelor’s and a master’s degree from Texas Tech University and a Ph.D. in agricultural economics from Texas A&M University. He is a faculty affiliate with NC State’s Center for Environmental and Resource Economic Policy, and the Center for Geospatial Analytics. Baker is a guest researcher affiliation at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis.