Wood in energy generation 2017 (provisional)

According to preliminary data, heating and power plants consumed a total of 19.9 million solid cubic metres (38.2 terawatt-hours) of solid wood fuels in 2017. This was the highest on record so far, showing a growth of 2% from the year before.

This growth was based on an increase in burning forest industry by-products and wood residues. In 2017, a total of 11.7 million cubic metres of different by-products were burned, being 6% more than in the previous year. The main material used in burning was bark, accounting for nearly two-thirds, or 7.7 million cubic metres, of by-product wood (showing an increase of 5% from the year before). The consumption of sawdust was 2.7 million cubic metres (+8%) and that of industrial chips was 1.2 million cubic metres (+8%). Of different solid wood fuels, the proportionally greatest increase (29%) was seen in the consumption of wood pellets and briquettes.

The consumption of forest chips decreased by 4% from the previous year to 7.1 million cubic metres. When measured by volume, forest chips lost their leading position held since 2010, becoming the second most significant solid wood fuel after bark. The use of forest chips decreased by 6% to 4.6 million cubic metres in combined heat and power production. Instead, forest chips maintained their previous level at 2.5 million cubic metres in the generation of heat. Together with the forest chips burned in small-scale housing (0.7 million cubic metres), the total consumption of forest chips reached 7.8 million cubic metres (–4%).

The use of small-sized trees as raw material for forest chips increased slightly from the previous year to 3.9 million cubic metres. Instead, the use of logging residues decreased by 10% to 2.3 million cubic metres and that of stumps fell by more than one-fourth to 0.6 million cubic metres. The use of large-sized timber as raw material increased to 0.4 million cubic metres.

The data presented herein is preliminary. The publication date for final data on the use of Wood in energy generation is presented in the Release calendar of Luke's statistics.