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'Carving out a local woodchip supply'
The Carbon Trust supported the London Borough of Croydon and the BioRegional Development Group with Applied Research grant funding of £68,000, which would co-ordinate both the supply and delivery of heat power through processing local woodchip resources.
Summary
Biomass is becoming an increasingly attractive low carbon energy source, with recent Carbon Trust analysis showing that renewable resources, like woodchip, could deliver material carbon savings of up to 5.6 million tonnes of carbon per annum in the UK. The adoption of biomass in place of fossil fuel for heating is one of the most promising applications, yet there is a need to establish its viability through successful commercial projects. The Carbon Trust supported the London Borough of Croydon and the BioRegional Development Group with Applied Research grant funding of £68,000 as part of a wider "TreeStation" project, which would facilitate the supply and delivery of both heat and power through processing local woodchip resources. Now turning over 10,000 tonnes of woodchip a year, the project has created a buoyant £200,000 plus market for biomass heating — saving carbon and waste-fill expenditure in the process.
Project Details
Biomass resources represent 85% of the UK’s renewable energy supply. As well as being a promising new heat resource, widespread adoption of biomass could also reduce landfill waste, saving both the carbon and the costs associated with disposal.
In 2004, the Carbon Trust awarded Applied Research grant funding of just under £62,000 to the London Borough of Croydon and the BioRegional Development Group to design and build a model woodchip production facility. This was later augmented by an additional £6,000 grant.
Legislation in the London Borough of Croydon, and other boroughs, requires all significant new building developments to generate 10% of their energy from on-site renewable resources. Given that there are significant resources of woodchip in London(1), which would otherwise cost the boroughs £40 per tonne to process as landfill, there was a strong case for creating a market to take the waste material and use it to fuel heating and combined heat and power (CHP) plants. This project set out to demonstrate an efficient, cost-effective way to produce high quality chip using woody waste from a nearby tree surgery. Alongside this, the project team aimed to set up a small-scale supply chain to catalyse local biomass heating installations.
The original intention was to supply 1,200 tonnes of woodchip to fuel a CHP plant at the Beddington Zero Energy Development (BedZED) site run by the Peabody Trust. However, as the project progressed, it became clear that there were long delays in commissioning the BedZED installation due to technical problems with the CHP plant, and plans for that market had to be set aside.
Such setbacks were frustrating, but are a key part of the rationale behind the Carbon Trust Applied Research scheme, which tests market concepts to refine and inform the commercialisation of innovative low carbon technologies and solutions. Crucially, with the Carbon Trust having supported the initial scoping work for the TreeStation, the Council and BioRegional Development Group were able to attract other grants from Landfill Tax Credit and the Scottish Power Green Energy Trust, which allowed them to continue with the construction of the site.
Having established a source of woodchip, the project team investigated other potential local customers. To guarantee the necessary investment, over and above the selling price of the heating fuel, the BioRegional Development Group brokered an innovative deal between City Suburban Tree Surgeons Ltd and Croydon Council, which would cover the management and disposal of all the Council’s woodchip waste to the TreeStation. Initially a single customer was then identified — Slough Heat and Power — which was already looking for wood fuel for its CHP plant.
 Until recently, the TreeStation supplied 2,500 tonnes of woodchip per year to Slough Heat and Power, but a higher capacity chipper is now in place, which means the site is delivering an estimated 10,000 tonnes of woodchip per annum. As the supply chain has been established, five local sites have now chosen wood fuel as their heating source, including a school and two care homes. If all the 10,000 tonnes are used for heating in the place of gas, this could save around 5,100 tonnes of CO2 per year. Looking further ahead, investment in new drying facilities at the Croydon TreeStation should lead to even wider take-up, as it would create woodchip with lower moisture content which is suitable for smaller heating boilers. However, the current system alone has saved the local council around £20,000 a year in waste disposal costs, and the TreeStation has a potential annual income of £210,000.
Through saving money and creating a new market, the TreeStation has provided a valuable sustainable and local resource that supports the development of carbon neutral heating and creates employment. BioRegional is now working to replicate the successful system within other council areas.
Andrew Tolfts, Forestry Manager at BioRegional, commented: "Without the support of the Carbon Trust, BioRegional would not have been able to set up the TreeStation and so boost the confidence of developers in specifying woodchip heating systems. The Carbon Trust funding has kick-started the local wood heating market, solving the chicken and egg problem of developing supply and demand. We are showing that wood chip fuel production can be a viable diversification for local businesses."
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