On April 8, 2016, the NS Government announced that the Nova Scotia Power biomass plant will no longer run 24/7, which the Ecology Action Centre and others called ‘a great first step’ to eliminating biomass”. I shared that optimism. However, it wasn’t long before alternative uses of the “low grade” wood were being promoted such as marine biofuels (see posts below: Bio-based fuels and What is this hub?).
“Biomass is Biomass. If we can’t burn it, we’ll just find another way to use it. After all, we pay next to nothing for it.”
In the meantime, I am told, there is a glut of wood on the market, prices are down and some wood yards have closed. The innovation folks expect that to be temporary as we “divert.. low grade wood to higher value products at a time when there is less demand for burning biomass to produce electricity.”
The producers of those higher value products can be expected to pay even less for “low grade wood” than when it was burned for electricity. Don’t expect them to pay more for high grade wood, and don’t expect them to stay in Nova Scotia after a few decades (or less) when forest productivity has dropped even more and we are no longer “competitive”.