Consumption of solid wood fuels decreased at heating and power plants in 2023 – the burning of forest chips continued to increase
According to the preliminary data of the Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke), heating and power plants consumed 22.4 million solid cubic metres of solid wood fuels in 2023, with their energy content totalling 43.9 terawatt hours, showing a decrease of two per cent from the previous year.
The consumption of solid wood fuels at heating and power plants fell to 22.4 million solid cubic metres in 2023. While the consumption of forest industry by-products decreased, that of forest chips climbed to record-breaking figures.
“Last year, energy plants consumed more forest chips than ever before, 11 million cubic metres in total. However, the total consumption of solid wood fuels started to decrease because lower production volumes in the forest industry reduced the burning of forest industry by-products,” says Markus Toikka, Senior Statistician at Luke.
In addition to heating and power plants, 6.9 million cubic metres of fuelwood were consumed in small-scale housing and on farms. Combined with the fuelwood burned in small-scale housing, the total consumption of wood fuels was 29.3 million cubic metres.
Consumption of forest chips at record-breaking levels
The consumption of forest chips – wood procured directly from forests and chipped for burning – at heating and power plants in 2023 was higher than ever before, totalling 11.0 million solid cubic metres, up by eight per cent from the previous year.
“The consumption of forest chips has increased significantly in the last three years. In 2020, the consumption of forest chips at heating and power plants was 7.6 million cubic metres,” says Toikka.
In addition to heating and power plants, forest chips are consumed in small-scale burning, including chip-based heating plants on farms. The total consumption of forest chips was 11.6 million cubic metres when the 0.6 million cubic metres consumed in small-scale burning are added to the volume used at heating and power plants.
The consumption of forest chips increased, driven by the growing consumption of roundwood
Forest chips are mainly produced from small-diameter trees, logging residues, stumps and large-sized roundwood. In 2023, 6.6 million cubic metres of the forest chips consumed at heating and power plants were produced from small-diameter trees, i.e. from pruned and unpruned stems and pulpwood.
The consumption of forest chips harvested mainly from regeneration sites was 3.0 million cubic metres and stumps was 0.3 million cubic metres. A total of 1.1 million cubic metres of large-sized trees was burned as forest chips, mainly consisting of decayed roundwood and roundwood that cannot be processed in the forest industry.
The increase in the consumption of forest chips was largely based on the larger volume of small-diameter trees and large roundwood. The consumption of logging residues and stumps remained roughly at the same level as in 2022.
Forest industry by-products are a significant source of energy
Nearly half of the solid wood fuels consumed at heating and power plants consisted of forest industry by-products. As a result of decreases in forest industry production, the consumption of by-products also fell in 2023, totalling 10.0 million cubic metres, down by ten per cent from the previous year.
The majority of by-products consisted of bark, the consumption of which totalled 6.0 million cubic metres. Industrial chips, various types of sawdust and other unidentified residues accounted for 4 million cubic metres.
In addition to forest chips and forest industry by-products, heating and power plants burned a total of 1.2 million solid cubic metres of recycled wood and 0.4 million tonnes of wood pellets and briquettes.
Information about the statistics
The statistics only cover the annual consumption of solid wood fuels. In addition, the consumption of wood in energy generation includes spent liquors of the forest industry, including black liquor. Statistics Finland is responsible for compiling and publishing statistics on their consumption.
Information about the consumption of solid wood fuels is collected from heating and power plants once a year. The figures representing the small-scale burning of wood are based on a separate sampling survey for the 2016/2017 heating season. The data presented herein are preliminary, and the final statistics will be published in autumn 2024.
