Tassie wood to fire Japan power plants

Hobart Mercury
Tuesday 2/9/2008 Page: 7

TASMANIAN wood will be exported to Japan for use in wood-fired power plants, says Forestry Tasmania managing director Bob Gordon. Speaking at the launch of Forestry Tasmania's new vision and mission statement yesterday. Mr Gordon said there had already been several exports, mostly to Japan. Starting in October. Gunns Ltd will export native wood from Triabunna to the Japanese company Chubu Electric.

"There have been several exports of fuelwood in the last 12 months to a variety of customers in Japan," Mr Cordon said. "The Japanese are like everywhere else in the world, they are trying to replace fossil fuel-powered electricity with renewable electricity which conies from wood waste." Forestry Tasmania assistant general manager Michael Wood said fuelwood was of a lower standard than pulpwood and would normally be part of a forest regeneration burn.

Mr Wood said he was not aware of any studies into whether the export of fuelwood to Japan and subsequent generation of renewable energy was carbon-neutral. Gunns says a pulp mill would reduce greenhouse gases because fewer ships would be carrying woodchips to Japan. Mr Wood said the interest in fuelwood had increased renewable energy certificates. There could be up to a million tonnes a year of suitable wood spread across Tasmania, he said. Mr Gordon said wood-fired power stations might be the solution to reducing forestry regeneration burns in Tasmania.

"What we really want to work on is getting a couple of wood-fired power stations so that, instead of wood in forests being burnt to create a seedbed for the eucalypts, what we would be doing would be creating renewable energy as well," he said. "They are accepted modern technology and they are smart modern technology, what they do is use the solar energy that the trees have captured and release it in a renewable and sustainable energy form. "And when we do that the number and intensity of regeneration burns will reduce." He said Forestry Tasmania already had a waste-fed power station in the Huon and there were a couple of other boilers which could have small steam fired turbines added.