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THEME ENERGY POLICIES

Forests and use of wood biomass

in Slovenia Nike Krajnc - Slovenian Forestry Institute

Slovenia is a small country with a lot of forest and with traditional use of wood for heating and cooking. Share of wooden biomass in primary energy in Slovenia is only 4% but more than 30 % of all households in Slovenia are still using wood for heating or cooking. According to the estimations there are still unused wood biomass potentials: how to mobilize them effectively?

SLOVENIAN FORESTS More than 56 % of land in Slovenia is covered with forest. There is more than 0.57 ha of forest land per capita. In Europe only Finland (4.03 ha of forest/capita) and Sweden (2.85 ha of forest/capita)

have more forest land per capita than Slovenia.

There is a long tradition sustainable forest management which re s u l t s i n m o s t l y m i xe d f o re s t w h i c h a re b u i l d m a i n l y f r o m Spruce (Picea abies), Beech (Fagus sylvatica) and Fir (Abies alba).

Growing stock and forest area in Slovenia in last 47 years

Sustainable forests management in Slovenia is defined by Forestry law ( 1 9 9 3 ) a n d t h e P ro g r a m m e o f forest development.

A nnu a l cu t i n y e a r 2000 wa s 2 609 000 m3. According to official data annual cut represents less then 40 % of increment. The growing s t o c k o f S l o v e n i a n f o re s t h a s increased of 45 % in the last 47 years.

Slovenia

Fo re s t a re a h a s c o n s i d e r a b l y increased in last 47 years (for 16 %).

The main reason for this process is the abandon of agricultural land.

According to official data the area of forests has increased of 3 940 ha per year.

There were 67 000 ha of abandoned agricultural land in year 1996. Taking in account also demographic trends, we can predict that the process of abandoning agricultural land will continue.

THE ROLE OF FORESTS REGARDING KYOTO REQUIREMENTS Slovenian forests remain an important, strategic, multipurpose and renewable source that should be acknowledged within international process and programmes as an important sink of carbon. According to adapted methodology for estimation of greenhouse gas emissions (COP 6, Bonn) the situation for Slovenia has changed. The most important achievement of above

TABLE 1: STRUCTURE OF FORESTS, GROWING STOCK, ANNUAL INCREMENT AND FELLING IN SLOVENIA (IN 2000)

Deciduous trees Coniferous trees Total

Structure of forest

Growing stock

Annual increment

Felling

% 52 48 100

m3 m3/ha 135 817 000 120 126 978 000 112 262 795 000 232

m3 m3/ha 3 777 000 3.33 3 095 000 2.73 6 872 000 6.06

m3 1 186 000 1 423 000 2 609 000

Felling in relation to annual increment

% 31 46 38

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THEME ENERGY POLICIES mentioned conference was (for Slovenia) enlargement of allowed quote of CO 2 sinks from forestry sector (from 0.18 to 0.36 MtC per year - till year 2012). Enlargement of growing stock and nature enlargement of forest area can be for the first time incorporated in this allowed quote. Orientation in accumulation of growing stock is defined in Programme of forest development in Slovenia. Accumulation of carbon in Slovenian forests i s p ro v e n w i t h e n l a rg e m e n t o f growing stock in last 40 years (the growing stock has grown for 45 % - Graph 1). Balance of calculated emissions and sinks of CO2 for forestry and land use change is according to IPCC methodology positive.

Accumulation of CO 2 in growing stock exceeds the allowed quota of CO2 sinks (1.3 Mt CO2).

In the past different estimations of carbon sink in wood products, wood biomass in growing stock and in abandoned agricultural land were carried out in Slovenia. Storage of carbon in wood biomass (trunk, branches, roots) is according to rough estimations 117 Mt of C, which equals 431 Mt CO2 (in year 1995). Storage of carbon in trunks and branches with diameter

N. KRAJNC

Drying of wood logs in southern part of Slovenia.

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Use of primary energy in Slovenia Nuclear energy 17% Oil 31%

Hydro energy 5%

Wood and wood waste 4%

Natural gas 10%

more than 10 cm is 58 Mt or 215 Mt CO2. Through annual gross increment (5.5 m3 / ha in 1995) and annual cut (2.0 m3 / ha in 1995) we can calculate storage of carbon (3.6 Mt CO2) in 1995. Another 5.3 Mt of carbon or 19.69 Mt CO2 were stored in wood.

Sink of CO2, which results from accumulation of growing stock (in year 1995) represents approximately one quarter of Slovenian CO2 emissions.

This calculation doesn’t take into

Coal 33%

account emissions caused by fire, tree decay, illicit cut and use of wood biomass for energy purposes.

POTENTIALS Detail analyze of wood biomass potentials was done by Slovenian Forestry Institute. According to this study potentials of wood biomass in Slovenia are:

THEME ENERGY POLICIES

N. KRAJNC

Biomass combine heat and power plant in small town Kamnik near Ljubljana.

450 000 dry tons of wood biomass per year from forests. In long run we can count with 1 m3 of wood biomass per ha of forest.

Important source of wood biomass for energy purposes is thin wood from thinning in early stages of forests. To develop stable and quality forest, regular thinning is necessary.

This means that forest management results in large amounts of thin wood. Most of this wood still remains unused in the forest, whereas it could be used especially in energy purposes.

120 000 dry tons of wood biomass per year from abandoned agricultural land. Uncontrolled overgrowing of abandoned agricultural areas remains an open issue in environmental management and it appears that in the foreseeable future there will not be any increasing interest in a more intensive exploitation of these areas.

The documented quantity of wood residues in the industrial sector (about 200 enterprises with more than 10 employees) amounts annually to about 361 000 tons (oven dry substance).

About 230 000 tons is already used

for energy purposes in existing medium sized boilers. But there are about 5 000 smaller wood processing enterprises – not included in above mention documentation. So the additional/untapped biomass potential in industrial sector is estimated to be at least 280 000 dry tons of wood waste per year.

WOOD BIOMASS TODAY S l o v e n i a n’ s d e p e n d e n c e o n imported energy has reached 81 %, although it should not exceed 65 %.

The use of energy per inhabitant is within the average of the European Union, while the consumption per unit of GDP is 2.5 times higher, which means that energy is not used as efficiently as in the EU. With respect to this situation, it is understandable that the Resolution on Efficient Energy Supply and Use in Slovenia (1996) gives special emphases to the improvement of efficiency, and to the increase of consumption (production) through renewable energy sources.

Momentary share of wooden biomass in primar y energy in Slovenia is 4% (graph 2). Strategy of

development anticipate that this share should rise up to 8%. This increase is possible on account of use existent wood waste and small round wood that came from thinning in early stages of forest and with different measures for more productive use of existing sources.

Beside small users there are 78 medium size wood biomass heating installations in industry and few biomass district heating systems.

Theoretical biomass potential in Slovenia was estimated on 64 PJ.

2001-2010: ACTION PLAN FOR ENERGY USE OF WOOD To achieve goals in Resolution on Efficient Energy Supply and Use in Slovenia an action programme was introduced to Slovenian government. With realisation of this programme the share of renewable sources of energy in primary energy would rise for 1,8 % and the emissions of CO2 would lower for 1,6 % (according to Kyoto protocol the emissions of CO2 in Slovenia should lower for 8 % by the year 2010).

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THEME ENERGY POLICIES

Drying of wood logs in northen part of Slovenia.

The main goals of this programme are: - e n l a r g e m e n t o f s h a re o f renewable sources of energy in primary energy consumption (in harmony with White paper of European Union of Renewable sources of energy); - reduction of CO2 emissions; - contribution to sustainable and multi- purposes forest and agricultural management (use of wood biomass from abandoned agricultural land, development of market for thin and low quality wood from thinning in early stages of forests); - contribution to rural development (new activities on farms, job creation, new possibilities for tourism);

- in long run lowering dependency on imported energy, higher reliability in energy supply.

E x p e c t e d b e n e f i t s o f t h i s p ro gramme are: - savings from fossil fuels (20 million Euros / year), - i n c re a s e o f a d d e d v a l u e i n regions, increase of net income in regions (337 million Euros / year), - re d u c t i o n o f C O 2 e m i s s i o n s (320 000 t CO2 / year) - job creation in rural regions (7 818 men / year).

- use of wood biomass will be increased for 38,7 %.

For realisation of this program another 500 000 m3 of wood biomass is needed. The question is will there be enough wood biomass?

N. KRAJNC

Small diameter wood for cooking and baking.

The program anticipates building of 50 new biomass district heating systems (average power 50 MW), 100 new biomass systems in industry (average power 300 kW) and 5 000 small biomass heating systems (average power 30 kW). Expected installed power of 5 150 projects is 330 MW, production of heat will be 1 200 GWh per year. The estimate value of the programme is 179 million Euros.

N. KRAJNC

Drying of wood logs in central part of Slovenia.

PERSPECTIVES...

N. KRAJNC

S l o v e n i a n f o re s t s re m a i n a n important, strategic, multipurpose a n d re n e w a b l e s o u rc e o f r a w material. Wood is not important only as raw material for wood processing industry but also as an energy source.

Wood biomass was and still is an important source of energy for rural population and especially for forest owners. And we hope that this importance will even rise in the future. To reach this goal some

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actions have to be run.

Political actions are important (subsidies, taxes and legislation), but more important is working with people.

In last five years we have done a lot on top-down approach and now we should start to work on bottom-up approach. We have to develop methods for advising, educating and then we have to listen to the wishes and needs.

Currently, important barriers for biomass use are economic – too high start-up investments, lack of state supports.

Unorganised wood biomass market and lack of information on wood biomass potentials are also important barriers. Another group of brakes are social: knowledge and behaviour of end users (lack of information and no system for education).

To overcome these obstacles we should develop a tool to estimate all aspects of the increased use of wood biomass.

With clear presentation of all direct and indirect costs and benefits (employment, displaced agricultural activities, developing a market for wood fuel, activity created) we could have an impact on public opinion.

And on the other hand we could possibly have an impact on wood biomass policy.