At the world’s biggest forestry equipment fair, Sweden’s Elmia Wood Expo held in June this year, it was clear that growing demand for bioenergy machinery is providing work for many forestry machinery manufacturers in northern Europe.

Most manufacturers are developing new machinery to more cost-effectively harvest thinnings, forward thinnings or harvest residues including stumps, convert these to chipped or ground material, and truck this material to be turned into energy.

The European Union countries, particularly the Nordic countries, are significantly increasing the use of forestry biomass for energy. While this was driven firstly by a response to the 1970s oil price rises and a realisation that national resource security was at stake, in the 1990s this was boosted by a need to stimulate rural employment, and by 1995 an additional driver came from binding European Union commitments to lower national emissions of greenhouse gases in addition to the Rio Convention commitments.

Today, a new driver has emerged – that of profiting by exporting this technology and expertise to the rest of the world. Finland and Sweden have dominated the production and development of forestry machinery since the Second World War. Now they dominate the production and export of low emission technology along with some other countries.

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Joining this new wave of developing renewable energy technology is China, which, thanks to technology partnerships with Denmark and Sweden, is likely to soon become a leader in the production of bioenergy plants of all sizes starting from 5 megawatt electric (MWe).

China already has 19 plants turning five million tonnes of straw and other agricultural residue into energy. Most of these plants are of 25–30 MWe capacity and each requires about 250,000 tonnes of straw, cotton stalk and nut hulls annually.

The target is to have about 40 such plants operating in China by the end of 2010, fuelled by about 10 million tonnes of straw or other residue purchased from farmers.

This is only a fraction of the 300 million tonnes of agricultural residue presently being burned in the fields each year. China’s bioenergy production by the end of 2010 of about 1,000 MWe is only a third of the energy produced from these plants, with up to 2,000 MW of heat energy available for industrial processes, or for commercial and domestic heat. Production of ethanol from lignocellulosic material such as straw and wood fibre will utilise some of this heat.

China is developing this technology very rapidly in partnership with several leading Scandinavian companies. There is no shortage of feedstock for producing bioenergy and biofuels, as the available forestry biomass is estimated to grow to become a billion tonnes a year.

Ignoring bioenergy as a cost-effective, base load, low emission supplement or replacement for coal-fired power plants means Australian manufacturers are missing the opportunity to export bioenergy technology and equipment.

Our political leaders have been slow to appreciate Australia’s scope for bioenergy production, and the spin-off employment and export opportunities. Bioenergy is the most widespread, cost-effective, base load, sustainable and low-emission form of energy, creating ongoing rural employment and providing 20 per cent or more of some nations’ primary energy needs, including electricity and vehicle fuels.

Andrew Lang is a board member of the World Bioenergy Association. In 2009, he visited the Elmia Wood Expo and was a guest of DP CleanTech which builds and manages China’s bioenergy plants.