Forest Biomass for energy – implications for the forest practices system

The current total use of forest biomass for energy generation over Tasmania is about 700 000 green tonnes per year, which corresponds to about 6.5 per cent of Tasmania ́s total energy supply. The largest proportion of this is domestic firewood (70 per cent). A smaller proportion is used for industrial heating, mostly by the wood processing industry for kiln drying.
These figures are small when compared to the use of forest biomass for energy generation in Europe (Figure 1). It is obvious that from a resource point of view there is a vast potential in Tasmania; according to my conservative estimates, the potential use of forest biomass for energy generation from both public and private forests is about 3.3 million green tonnes per year which would meet about 30 per cent of Tasmania‘s total energy demand.

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