Website: www.woodforwarmth.co.uk

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Summary

Wood-for-Warmth is a wood-fuel supply business in Perthshire in Scotland. It is a private SME business and part of a farming enterprise. The owners have installed a new, sophisticated, wood-fuel boiler in their premises to provide heating to their farmhouse and adjacent offices. This installation is part of the development programme for their wood-fuel business which also includes investment in a purpose-designed wood-fuel chipping machine. The 50kW boiler can operate on wood-chips or wood-pellets. It is a Herz boiler from Austria and one of the first of its kind in Scotland. The installation provides a working example of wood-fuel heating good practice and serves as a model for other property managers, illustrating the benefits and reliability of this technology. It also demonstrates to local authorities and decision-makers how indigenous, renewable energy resources can be utilised to provide comfort and environmental benefits. The boiler installation received support from the Scottish Community & Householder Renewables Initiative.

Results

The wood-fuel boiler was installed and commissioned in October 2006 and has provided reliable service to date. It represents the first of this modern type of wood-fuel boiler to be installed in this region. Other possible, local wood-fuel heating projects have been frustrated to date because of market hurdles. Thankfully, in this case, the decision to install wood-fuel heating was taken as a strategic investment in the development of the wood-fuel supply business. This anticipates faster progress in future in developing a local wood-fuel marketplace and this demonstration installation will provide a basis for that business develop, with attendant environmental benefits as biomass heating is specified in preference to the continuing use of fossil fuels.

Lessons learned and repeatability

This wood-fuel boiler installation is an example of biomass heating replication. There is only a very immature wood-fuel marketplace operating in Scotland at present. Some progress has been made in the last four years or so. However, there are only approximately 60 to 70 wood-fuel boilers operating in non-domestic premise across the country. The rate of progress is increasing, with several relatively large installations now being planned. There is much still to be achieved before wood-fuel heating is considered to be an option equal to the established and conventional oil- and natural gas-fired boilers. A new Scottish Biomass Support Scheme is now being launched to offer partial financing to encourage the use of wood-fuel boilers in non-domestic premises. This should have a major impact in promoting wood-fuel heating installations.

In Perthshire, there has only been only slow progress to date in installing wood-fuel heating. Although much has been achieved preparing for a future local wood-fuel marketplace by providing encouragement to farmers and landowners to engage in planning new wood-fuel supply businesses. These supplies are now ready. The next target is to convince energy end-users of the benefits of wood-fuel heating and to provide assurances that a competitive local marketplace is ready to provide quality-assured, reliable supplies of wood-fuel from local resources, which are not vulnerable to interruptions in supply, nor vulnerable to uncontrolled shifts in external market prices (as happens with oil and gas).

Further information

Details of equipment used by Wood-for-Warmth are available at the following websites:

• Herz biomass boilers - www.herz-feuerung.com
• Eschlbock chipper - www.eschlboeck.at

This case study was prepared by NIFES Consulting Group - Scottish partner in the Biomass Partnerships project.