The UK forest’s entire harvest could be consumed by three new biomass plants, the wood based panels industry has warned.
Norbord Europe managing director Karl Morris said the new permission granted to Anglesey Aluminium for a plant in Holyhead follows two earlier permissions for Drax biomass plants.
The panels industry is worried biomass power stations will source UK wood fibre using its subsidies, outbidding manufacturers who need the raw material to make board products.
However, the sector was given a boost recently in a draft report by the Scientific Committee of the European Union Environment Agency, which said “it is widely assumed that bioenergy is carbon neutral. However, this assumption is flawed”.
The report also said “the potential consequences of this bioenergy accounting error are immense”.
“The government has failed to take note of the wood panel industry’s concerns,said Mr Morris. “Surely, if the EU’s watchdog is expressing similar concerns, the time has come to pause and reconsider the headlong rush to biomass energy.”
