Wood is a renewable energy that contributes to France's energy autonomy, promotes the use of local resources and job creation, according to our partner The Conversation.
This is rather good since the forest now covers 16.9 million hectares in metropolitan France, or 31% of the territory.
In the 20th century, the forest area even increased by 6 Mha (according to the IGN forest inventory).
This analysis was conducted by Émilie Machefaux, head of the “Forest Food and Bioeconomy” department of the Ecological Transition Agency.
Wood energy – which accounted for 36% of renewable energy production in France in 2019, thus coming first among renewable energies – has a major role to play in the energy transition.
The Multiannual Energy Program (PPE) also gives it a central place.
As heat comes mainly from imported fossil fuels, producing it from a renewable resource such as wood contributes to France's energy autonomy, promotes the use of local resources and job creation.
With 52,800 direct and indirect jobs, the wood energy sector generates 3 to 4 times more jobs in France than fossil fuels.
VIDEO:
“What is wood energy?
- Dalkia (EDF group) / Youtube 2020
When it is mentioned, two categories are to be considered: the heat produced by collective boiler rooms (set up by communities) or industrial ones, and that resulting from domestic equipment (instead of a gas or oil for example).
The latter represents nearly 70% of wood energy.
Like all renewable energies, wood energy is debated.
To remove the amalgams, work has been undertaken to better understand the impacts.
If these controversies, in particular scientific ones, raise questions, Ademe considers that they are often the subject of a lack of nuances to take into account the different situations.
In order to integrate environmental issues as much as possible into the development of the wood energy sector and in its financing tools, the Agency has updated the life cycle analysis of wood energy.
A lever for the energy transition
The Multiannual Energy Program (PPE) has set very ambitious targets for wood energy.
For domestic wood heating, it promotes the maintenance of constant wood consumption with a greater number of users.
The PPE provides for between 10.2 and 11.3 million homes heated with wood with a labeled device by 2028 (compared to 6.8 million in 2017).
Air pollution: when breathing becomes dangerous https://t.co/Y1xIsb6Mhd pic.twitter.com/tElruxvHNf
— The Conversation France (@FR_Conversation) January 14, 2020
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In other words, it is a matter of rapidly replacing wood-burning appliances with more efficient equipment in terms of energy efficiency and pollutant emissions – air quality is a major issue when it comes to wood energy and one of the main points of debate;
emissions related to wood energy represent 28% of national emissions of PM10 particles, 44% of national emissions of PM2.5 and 3% of national emissions of nitrogen oxide.
Aid for fleet renewal
This renewal of wood-burning appliances is part of an overall policy of energy renovation of housing and reductions in consumption.
It must also be accompanied by good practices (fuel quality, fire management, maintenance) and sizing of the equipment adapted to the needs.
Concerning wood energy for the industrial and collective sectors, the PPE aims to increase heat production by 40% by 2028. To achieve this objective, Ademe has been implementing the Heat Fund since 2009, a subsidy scheme communities and businesses.
This aid encourages the replacement of facilities consuming fossil fuels by renewable heat production equipment using biomass, geothermal energy, solar, biogas and recovered energies, coupled with heating networks.
Forest chips, logs, pellets…
For the collective and industrial sectors, the resource used for the production of heat from biomass can be diverse: recovery of end-of-life material wood products, related or by-products of the wood processing industry, wood from felling in the forest or trees outside the forest (green spaces and hedges) and agricultural by-products.
83.5% of the biomass mobilized for forest chips comes from trees or whole crowns and crowns.
Enhanced by climate change, natural hazards have compound effects on forest health.
#EarthDay #JourDeLaTerre
✍️ - Félix Bastit and Marielle Brunette (@BrunetteMar)
🏫 - @INRAE_France
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– The Conversation France (@FR_Conversation) April 22, 2021
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For domestic wood heating, logs are preferred.
It is often a local resource made up of 64% wood taken from the forest, 23% wood from the maintenance of orchards or hedges and 13% recovered wood.
Over the years, the volume of domestic firewood has decreased due to the better efficiency of appliances, the insulation of homes and the development of pellet appliances (increasingly popular).
A complement to other uses
The development of wood energy cannot be considered solely from the perspective of its opportunities, but must also be considered from that of environmental impacts – contribution to mitigating climate change, availability of wood resources, air quality.
Thus, a balance must be sought between the service rendered (for example, heat) and the impacts generated.
To achieve carbon neutrality, several levers must be activated: reducing energy consumption, promoting carbon storage in ecosystems and wood products and decarbonizing energy production by replacing fossil fuels with renewable energies.
In order to improve the overall environmental balance of wood energy, it is necessary to deploy timber sectors to promote the use of wood in long-life materials (framework and roofing, joinery, flooring, furniture, etc.) .) – these materials store part of the carbon taken from the forest during their lifetime and replace other materials of fossil origin (steel, concrete, plastic).
This will further lead to increased wood available for energy.
Preserving the forest carbon sink
Another aspect to take into account: do we have sufficient resources with regard to the objectives set by the PPE?
The forest today covers 16.9 million hectares (Mha) in metropolitan France, or 31% of the territory.
In the 20th century, the forest area increased by 6 Mha according to the IGN forest inventory.
Article 👍 on forest and climate in France
➡️ 54% of the annual increase in wood is exploited
➡️ Risk of loss of 10 to 30% of forest stock by 2050
➡️ Wood construction allows - CO2 / other materials ➕ CO2 storage over 50-100 yearshttps://t.co/lJQ2YJK70C
— Aurélien Bigo (@AurelienBigo) December 19, 2019
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To find the balance between preservation of the forest carbon sink and development of wood energy, the national plan for forests and for wood defines mobilization targets for forest biomass lower than the increase in forests – between 2009 and 2017, the total harvest of forest timber for all uses represented about 60% of the net natural increase of the forest.
Diversify supply
Furthermore, beyond the use of forest chips, it is necessary to continue diversifying the supply of boiler rooms through the use of wood waste, green waste, wood from outside the forest and the development of pellets. .
For collective and industrial installations financed by the Heat Fund, the supply plans are submitted for opinion to the “biomass cells” in the regions.
These assess the risk of competition for use of a resource and the availability of the wood resource for the future installation.
Optimizing the environmental balance of wood energy also involves reducing fuel supply distances, in other words favoring a local resource, while taking into account the differences in resources between regions in order to maintain their balance.
Promote certain silvicultural practices
Silvicultural practices also have an important role to play in optimizing the contribution of wood energy to climate change mitigation.
In its recent LCA, Ademe proposes a first approach for quantifying the greenhouse gas (GHG) balances of heat production from forest chips from different silvicultural scenarios in a context of increased harvesting of wood.
The examples studied show great variability in the overall GHG balance of heat production depending on the silvicultural practices considered.
The French forest and its soils to limit greenhouse gases https://t.co/dK7RoyChyj pic.twitter.com/A1Z4QocDeM
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This study makes it possible to confirm the silvicultural practices that make it possible to increase the production of wood energy while limiting the reduction or increasing the average carbon stocks in the forest.
Thus, it is recommended to prioritize for wood energy wood that does not find a material outlet and which:
would have been cut in any case: silvicultural actions necessary for the harvesting of timber, sanitary cuts, etc.
;
promotes the production of timber: selective cutting of small diameter trees;
comes from new afforestation on currently non-forested agricultural land or urban wasteland.
Practices that present a greater risk of destocking and altering the quality of the soil or biodiversity should, on the contrary, be avoided – such as the use of large wood of material quality directly as energy.
Protecting the soil, a challenge for the sector
The forest provides essential environmental and societal services: refuge and reservoir of biodiversity, public reception, wood production, carbon storage, etc. Unsustainable wood harvesting practices have an impact on the functioning of ecosystems.
With long term effects on the growth, the regeneration of the forests and therefore on the sector.
Preserving the biodiversity of agricultural and forest soils, but also rehabilitating urban soils, means improving the ability of our societies to face the future.
https://t.co/G0mqkaGOfD
— The Conversation France (@FR_Conversation) March 1, 2022
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Capitalizing on the results of research projects and a practical guide, an Ademe brochure has been drawn up with representatives of forestry professionals and the timber industry, the academic world and environmental associations.
Our "TREES" file
It summarizes the major issues for a sustainable harvest of wood intended for the production of woodchips.
With decision support tools and good practices aimed at maintaining the chemical fertility and physical integrity of soils, conserving habitats for biodiversity and preserving wetlands and waterways .
Planet
Global warming: Why mountain forests are essential for biodiversity
Planet
“Assises de la forêt et du bois”: The three dilemmas of French forestry policy
This analysis was written by Émilie Machefaux, head of the “Forest Food and Bioeconomy” department of Ademe (Ecological Transition Agency).
The original article was published on The Conversation website.
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