Wood heating co-operatives

By Donal Magner

The Finnish way to provide markets for thinnings

A group including six Irish farm foresters, from the Forestry Development Association Co-operative recently saw at first hand how Finnish farm foresters are developing wood energy markets from first thinnings reports Tom Kent of Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT).

Finnish farmers are well organised and have over the years formed co-operatives to sell heat to private, industrial and local authority users of wood fuel. The group travelled for three days around the Oulu region of central Finland. In Finland about 75% of the land area, or 23 million ha, is covered by forest. One family in four in Finland owns an area of forest, with an average holding size of 30ha.

Despite Finland's massive forest industry, small forest owners face very similar problems to Irish farm forest owners: that is, how to thin their forests economically. One of the solutions developed has been for groups of farmers to form wood heating co-operatives, such as the one visited by the Irish group at Kalvia. The members of the co-op have created a local sustainable market for their forest thinnings by developing a small district-heating scheme with the local authorities. The wood energy co-operative at Kalvia started in 2000 with 25 members and now has 65 members. The co-op has the contract to supply heat to the local authority buildings and five private homes. The local authority contributed by agreeing to purchase its heat requirements and putting in 3500m of district heating pipes.

An EU capital grant of 15% was supplied in contribution to the heating plant construction costs. The co-op has a contract based on a fixed base price per month and a unit price for the heat supplied. The co-op is currently constructing an additional plant to fulfil a new contract to supply heat to an industrial estate.

The chief benefit to the co-op members is that they have a secure, sustainable, local market for their forest thinnings. The plant uses 50 cubic meter per day at peak output. The members either carry out the harvesting and extraction to roadside themselves or employ a contractor.

The group travelled to a typical first thinning operation in a Scots pine stand with a stocking of approximately 3000 stems per ha. A feller forwarder with a feller buncher head was used to harvest and extract all the material. The benefit of this machine was that it could carry out all the required operations alone. It first cut extraction racks perpendicular to the road by cutting and bunching ahead of the machine and collecting the bunches as it reversed out to roadside. As it reversed it selectively harvested trees on either side of the extraction rack and loaded these bunches into the bunk.

The machine harvested about 50 cubic meter per day and extracted this for roadside stacking. After seasoning the energy wood is chipped using a tractor-mounted chipper and transported by tractor and trailer to the plant. A contractor, who is also a member of the co-op and the manager of the heating plant, carries this out. There is storage for 200 cubic meter of chips at the plant and as each load of chips is brought in, the weight of a sample of the load is obtained. Suppliers of energy wood are paid, based on the weight of the chip supplied.

Growers in Finland demonstrated the importance of forest owners actively managing their farm forests and the key role of support measures to initiate this new industry.

First thinning, carried out correctly and at the right time, is essential to realising the full economic value of a forest crop.

The Finnish experience suggests that local heating markets supplied with wood chip from farm forests can ensure that thinning is a financially viable operation.

LEADER and Leonardo

Adriene Booth of the Forestry Development Association secured funding from the Wicklow, Wexford, Waterford and Kilkenny LEADER Partnership for the study tour.

The group acknowledges the support of WESST - Wood Energy Supply Systems Training. Waterford Institute of Technology are the project promoters of the WESST project. The study tour itinerary was organised by Oulu Polytechnic the Finnish partner of the WESST project.