The heat is back on for native forest waste to be used for power generation but the Eden woodchip mill in NSW says it has no plans to get involved. Source: The Australian
South East Fibre Exports general manager Peter Mitchell said despite Monday’s agreement on the Renewable Energy Target to include forest waste, the proposal was still too uncertain to justify – investment.
“Burning waste already at the mill would be one of the best forms of renewable energy available and is widely utilised in Europe,” Mr Mitchell said, “but nobody is going to invest the money with so much uncertainty.”
Labor has said it does not support the inclusion of forest waste in the RET and it has become the focus of a building campaign by conservation groups.
The federal government is expected to use changes in regulation to include it in the revised RET deal for 33,000GWh of power.
The Japanese-owned Eden Mill, which has struggled for years because of low world chip prices, believes a global trend towards bio energy may lead to a recovery in demand for chips for papermaking.
“The sudden and recent emergence of biomass power generation will generate serious competition for wood fibre in the future as the world seeks to move away from fossil fuel use, and this competition is likely to provide a serious challenge to the pulp and paper sector in resource supply,’” the company website says.
In Australia, environment groups have mounted a strong campaign over many years to stop forest waste being eligible for renewable energy certificates.
They say it represents a low-value replacement for woodchipping and leads to greater forest destruction.
Markets for Change said Labor had traded off abandonment of two-yearly reviews of the Renewable Energy Target for burning of native forest biomass.
The group said both issues could have been ruled out if Labor had insisted on legislative provisions to do so.
“Expect the government to now put forward a change to regulations to include combustion of native forest biomass, and for Labor to indulge in ineffectual hand-wringing,” group chief executive Peg Putt said.
“This is no substitute for insisting on effective legislative provisions in the deal just agreed.”
Wilderness Society national forest campaign manager Warrick Jordan said the groups had written to Tony Abbott asking him to shelve his plan to include burning native forests as a renewable energy.
