Weekend Australian
Saturday 28/6/2008 Page: 6
The New Zealand government is looking to wood, agricultural plants and municipal and industrial wastes to help-it achieve an ambition to be carbon neutral in electricity supply by 2025. At present the country obtains more than 70 per cent of its power from hydro-electric operations, but is reliant on coal and natural gas for most of the balance - not least when drought affects the rivers feeding its hydro turbines. Critics of the Government's ambitions argue that relying far more on renewable energy will undermine the country's economic competitiveness, creating problems for energy-intensive industry.
However, research commissioned by the Government suggests that policymakers should be looking beyond use of residual biomass from forestry and farming activities towards growing new forests on marginal lands specifically for harvesting for energy supply. The research claims that current energy production of 45 petajoules a year from biomass resources could be doubled by 2050 by increasing forest harvesting and better using wood processing residues.
Meeting the challenge, it is argued, would require more than three million hectares of plantation forest - New Zealand's current plantation estate stands at 1.7 million hectares. Much of the planting would need to take place in steep hill country.
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