Wood in energy generation 2018 (provisional)

According to the preliminary data of the Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke), heating and power plants consumed a total of 20.1 million solid cubic metres (38.7 terawatt-hours) of solid wood fuels in 2018, being nearly at the same level as in the previous year.

The consumption of forest chips turned to an increase, up by 3% from the previous year to 7.5 million cubic metres. The use of forest chips in combined heat and power production increased by 4% to 4.8 million cubic metres after a four-year decrease. In heat production, their use increased by 2% to 2.7 million cubic metres. Together with forest chips burned in small-scale housing (0.6 million cubic metres), the total consumption of forest chips reached 8.1 million cubic metres.

The consumption of forest industry by-products and wood residues was 11.5 million cubic metres, being 2% less than in the previous year. The main by-product used in burning was bark, accounting for two-thirds, or 7.7 million cubic metres, of all by-products. The consumption of sawdust and other dusts in energy generation was 2.5 million cubic metres and that of industrial chips 1.2 million cubic metres. In addition, the consumption of recycled wood totalled 0.9 million and that of wood pellets and briquettes 0.2 million cubic metres.

In 2018, a total of 3.9 million cubic metres of small-sized trees were used as raw material for forest chips, being 3% less than in the year before. Instead, the use of logging residues increased by nearly one-fifth to 2.7 million cubic metres. The consumption of forest chips manufactured from stumps was 0.4 million cubic metres, being one-third lower than in the previous year. However, the use of large-sized timber increased by one quarter to 0.5 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.