Climate activists have driven legislation to replace conventional fossil fuel use in our electric power generation with renewables like wind turbines and solar panels. These attempted replacements have been most aggressively pursued in the European Union after adopting the Kyoto Protocol of 2005. E.U. countries are also experiencing power shortfalls as nuclear plants are taken out of service by “green” political mandates. We now know that green renewable expansions cannot replace the coal- and gas-fired power losses because of the inherent unreliability and costs of wind and solar power.
So, what source of renewable energy has become most important in the E.U.? The E.U. has three-quarters of the world’s total installed capacity of solar photovoltaic energy. Germany tripled its wind-power production in the past decade. Ironically, today the predominant renewable fuel used in the E.U. is wood.
Wood fuels can be sticks, pellets or sawdust, and can be referred to as renewable “biomass fuel.” Such wood fuel accounts for about half of the E.U.’s renewable-energy production. According to The Economist, in Poland and Finland, wood meets more than 80% of renewable-energy demand. In Germany, where huge subsidies went towards wind and solar power development, 38% of non-fossil fuel consumption comes from wood. Progressive E.U. governments have prided themselves in their high-tech, low-carbon energy revolution. But, the main beneficiary seems to be wood fuels that once dominated the pre-industrial revolution. Wood can only be carbon-neutral if it's carbon emissions are offset by carbon that is captured and stored in newly planted forest trees.
Wood has various advantages in electric power generation. Building of wind farms is very expensive, while existing power plants can be converted to burn a mixture of 90% coal and 10% wood at little extra cost. Unlike new solar or wind farms, wood use goes to existing power plants with existing power grid interconnections. Wood energy, as with coal and nuclear power, is not intermittent in operating efficiency like solar and wind power. Moreover, wood can be used in conventional coal-fired power plants that might otherwise have been shut down under new environmental standards. This makes it more attractive to power companies. (The Economist, April 6, 2013)
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