{"id":367,"date":"2013-03-14T21:28:05","date_gmt":"2013-03-14T21:28:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/woodlandcrofts.org.cp-27.webhostbox.net\/?p=367"},"modified":"2013-03-14T21:33:35","modified_gmt":"2013-03-14T21:33:35","slug":"keep-it-local","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodlandcrofts.org\/?p=367","title":{"rendered":"Keep it local!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I thought I\u2019d talk about woodfuel in my first \u2018proper\u2019 post, partly because with Spring approaching it might be last time many people (apart from the committed full-time woodfuel user) may be thinking about it. However the need for warmth is such a basic human need that it is inevitably a subject that will crop up repeatedly on this Blog.<\/p>\n<p>Partly too, it was triggered by one of those coincidences where just when you are thinking about an issue, several other things crop up to feed into the train of thought. In this case it was a weekend session cutting firewood about 3 miles from home. Minimal \u2018timber miles\u2019 I thought, but couldn\u2019t help but also think it was still more than sourcing it from one\u2019s own woodland croft.<\/p>\n<p>Then, when lighting the fire with old newspapers I came across a story about the Drax power station in England going \u2018green\u2019 through a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.draxgroup.plc.uk\/biomass\/\" target=\"_blank\">large-scale switch to burning biomass<\/a> \u2013 but much of which will be imported from Europe, Africa and the USA. This neatly highlights the issue of efficient use of biomass, as applicable to our domestic use as to industrial giants.<\/p>\n<p>Firstly, does it make sense to burn precious (and non-renewable) hydrocarbons to move woodfuel any distance? And what is the most sensible use of biomass?<\/p>\n<p>The answer to the second question is obvious really: modern woodfuel equipment can generate heat at over 90% efficiency in the very premises where it is required \u2013 so we should always use biomass for heat. By contrast electricity generation from biomass (without CHP) typically struggles to exceed 30% efficiency \u2013 resulting in a huge proportion of the energy in the wood being wasted.<\/p>\n<p>The answer to the first question may seem less clear: certainly the mainstream forest industry would play the \u2018net carbon\u2019 card \u2013 yes, there are carbon emissions from timber transport, but these are more than offset by the carbon savings of using biomass versus fossil fuels.<\/p>\n<p>However, it is often very useful to consider these questions in relation to our own experiences. Would we travel 10 miles for firewood when it could be obtained 5 miles away? Would we even travel 3 miles (as above!) if it was available on our own woodland croft? All else being equal \u2013 of course not.<\/p>\n<p>The final piece of synchronicity in my woodfuel thoughts was the news this week that the EU has introduced new <a href=\"http:\/\/europa.eu\/rapid\/press-release_MEMO-13-208_en.htm?locale=en \" target=\"_blank\">rules<\/a> for monitoring greenhouse gas emissions from forestry. At present these focus on accounting and reporting rather than reducing emissions, but longer term, emission reduction targets may be introduced. Such measures would begin underline the message on biomass which we already instinctively know to be true:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWoodfuel \u2013 <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">keep it local<\/span>.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I thought I\u2019d talk about woodfuel in my first \u2018proper\u2019 post, partly because with Spring approaching it might be last time many people (apart from the committed full-time woodfuel user) may be thinking about it. However the need for warmth is such a basic human need that it is inevitably a subject that will crop [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodlandcrofts.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodlandcrofts.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodlandcrofts.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodlandcrofts.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodlandcrofts.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=367"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/woodlandcrofts.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":370,"href":"https:\/\/woodlandcrofts.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367\/revisions\/370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodlandcrofts.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodlandcrofts.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodlandcrofts.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}