Paris, 25 June (Argus) — France's rapidly expanding biomass combined heat and power (CHP) network means the country remains likely to import wood feedstock by 2020.
But the continued lack of an effective supply chain to provide a projected 3GW of capacity with sufficient feedstock is creating tensions within the domestic industry.
“The advances we need in the industry are not technological, they are about organisation,” lawmaker and assistant rapporteur to the French assembly on biomass energy Francois Lambert said. “We need a programme for wood procurement for energy that is adapted to the resources that are actually available, not one disconnected from reality.”
Difficulties have arisen over the past five years as the state has successfully subsidised the construction of power plants and CHP units managed by energy regulator CRE and energy management agency Ademe.
For France to satisfy its projected capacity — much of which is already in the development, planning and construction phases —imports are likely to be necessary and sometimes desirable for plant operators.
“Will wood imports be needed by 2020? Yes. We just do not have the resources available right now,” French utility GDF Suez subsidiary Cofely's energy purchases director, Francois- Xavier Dugripon, told Argus. “But I hope the end effects will be marginal and the imports of wood will act as an incentive for the domestic wood supply market. And when those imports come, they will be wood pellets. There is no point in shipping wood chip as it is not dense enough.”
Imports could come from nearby EU nations, with Scandinavian and eastern European countries likely suppliers, especially for French units situated close to ports.
But waiting for France's domestic supply industry to provide enough wood may not be enough in itself, according to Ademe director-general Virginie Schwarz.
“Biomass certainly poses questions over procurement if we are not to cut down all France's forests,” she said. “But this needs to go hand in hand with reduced energy consumption.”
The primary problems for procurement are political concerns over strains on French forest cover coupled with the effects on existing timber industries, according to speakers at a bioenergy conference in Paris this week. Different departments and regions are giving varied signals over biomass power planning, as well as feedstock procurement.
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