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What's so good about wood?

Wood is a very cheap fuel, it grows on trees! Wood is very safe to store and easy to handle, no special tanks are required and it lasts for a very long time if kept dry. We could grow far more wood to meet demand by utilising land that is not required for anything else but, sadly, here in the UK at least, many old forests and woods have just been left to decay with the resource being wasted.

Wood is a so-called "carbon-neutral" fuel because carbon is absorbed as it grows, released when it is burnt but locked-up again when more wood is grown. This means that the carbon just goes round and around in a continual cycle and never adding to carbon in the atmosphere over time. Oil, gas and coal, on the other hand, all add to the atmosphere releasing carbon that was locked-up millions of years ago that some people believe may increase a 'greenhouse-effect' and heat up the planet. I'm not going to enter into that debate now but, given the choice, aren't we rather dumb to take unnecessary risks with the planet when we don't need to?

I realise that we can't meet all of our energy needs from wood but it could make a sizeable contribution, so why aren't we making full use of it?

Wood-chip and wood-pellet stoves and boilers are gradually becoming more popular as people discover the advantages but it is a slow process. Governments in general seem to construct very bad energy policies and, in the UK at least, there appears to be little appetite to lead the way in backing practical, sensible solutions that benefit the individual. There seems to be far more enthusiasm for oil and gas in particular, possibly due to a lack of solid scientific knowledge and practical expertise amongst policy makers, leaving us all the worst off as a result. Politicians seem all too eager to create profits from energy on dubiously justified pretexts that appear only to benefit large corporations and shareholders. In my humble opinion, profit is the last thing we should be thinking about where energy is concerned and, whilst I'm on my moral platform, why isn't all energy for pensioners free as well? With an energy policy based on efficiency rather than profit this should only be a tiny overhead for the rest of us.

Given that we all desire modern labour-saving equipment and we want our homes to be warm and well lit, then there are three simple steps to follow for the future: We should insist that all equipment is absolutely as energy-efficient as possible and all homes are ultra-insulated, (please see my section How to save energy) . We must insist that as far as practically possible all electricity is generated locally so that wasted heat can go to peoples homes rather than into rivers or up to the sky. Together with wider use of solar panels and similar, we must grow more energy crops on land not required for anything else and maintain existing woodland better to make use of that fuel too. These three steps could significantly reduce our reliance on oil and gas, save money and reduce carbon emissions.

I'm not so naive to believe any of the above is likely to happen and I suspect that many powerful noses are so deeply into the profit-trough from oil and gas that robust measures to prevent change might be almost impossible to challenge. That said, change doesn't necessarily need to happen in big steps or at an international level as individuals collectively have shown so many times in the past. If each of us changes our energy habits just a little bit, that could have huge benefits for everyone overall.

These websites may also be of interest (click on Web addresses):-

See more information about wood as a fuel here: http://www.forestry.gov.uk/forestry/INFD-7M8G28