Wood waste potential of the North-western region of Russia is estimated as much as 16mln m3 annually. This figure is calculated on the basis of production volume of timber industry of the region and the real share of allowed annual cut exploited.

16mln m3 of wood wastes is equivalent to about 50mln MWt-hour of energy per year. According to the official statistics, energy consumption of the region in question in 2004 made up 93.6 MWt-hour. It can thus be concluded that over 50% of the consumed energy could theoretically be produced on the basis of the biomass available in the region. 

However, there exist a certain number of obstacles discouraging development of the bio-energy potential of the region.  Transportation of wastes to the place of utilization ranks first. High transportation costs make it unprofitable to move the harvesting residues out from the forest. Moreover, there has always been lack of forest roads which could be used for that purpose. That is why the "producers" of biomass are not always interested in this kind of development. This is neither supported by the legislation.

Very slow development of bio-energy sector in the area (as well as in Russia on the whole) is to a great extent influenced by large resources of fossil fuels available. Generally speaking, it is more profitable to use these fuels, and the country has always been oriented on such kinds of fuel as gas and coal. However, when it comes to some remote forested areas, such local fuel as wood can be the best solution for energy production there, as it is usually very expensive to transport "traditional" fuels there.

Generally, the share of biomass in the total volume of fuel used by the energy production sector is very small (not more that 0.3%). Still, Northwest Russia is one of the most profound areas in the country in terms of bio-energy development, pellet production being one of the main directions. Currently over 10 plants are operating in the region with the joint rated capacity about 200 thousand tons of pellets/year. Unfortunately, not more than 30% of the rated capacity is factually used, which is caused by both the equipment installed and raw-material quality. Major share of the products is exported. As for the domestic market, only a small share is meant for local private houses furnished with special boilers.
One should also note a positive, but slow developing trend of switching industrial boilers from thick oil and coal to biomass (wood wastes).

Currently a special Programme of bio-energy development in the region is being elaborated, which is supposed to "push" the situation towards establishing a domestic market of biomass.

Business Support Bureau "Runa" www.runa.info