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There is little news to report about the Australian Government’s approach towards achieving its renewable energy target by 2020. In the absence of that, I thought, I report on the consequences of renewable energy policy from the other side of the world. I have recently read an interesting article about the German biomass energy generators and their impact on forest depletion which I consider as a remarkable example of how climate change policy should not work. Here is a bit more about it.

Germany is currently experiencing a boom in the timber market. The high demand for timber can mainly be attributed to bio-energy generators which are receiving high garantied income through the renewable energy act. According to the act, electricity generated from biomass and fed into the grid system is being rewarded with between 7.7 and 11.67 Euro Cent per KW/hour depending on the total capacity the facility. A bonus of 2.6 Euro Cent comes on top of that when timber as a re-growing resource is used.  This made it highly attractive to invest in timber burning power stations in recent years. In addition, wood pellet heating systems became attractive to German home owners as an alternative to expensive oil and gas heating systems.

Timber is a renewable resource with a somewhat CO2 neutral balance when used in power generation.   However, the overall CO2 balance of each power plant should also factor generator efficiency and fuel transport in. Due to the high growth in the biomass sector, this resource became scarcer recently. Biomass facilities burn fresh timber, matured timber as well as organic waste like leaves.  As a consequence, even tree parts that weren’t used before for burning such like tree root systems, bark and branches are now considered for energy generation with considerable consequences as these parts are not only valuable nutrient for forest soils but also important for the soil’s water storage capacity. In addition, more and more tree parts with high water contents are also being used which inevitably will negatively impact on plant efficiency.

The demand for timber grew by 23% from 2006 to 2007, with a total of 76.7 million cubic meters being harvested. Limited supply of timber let the price per solid cubic meter timber double from 30 Euro in 2003 and is now also affecting other sectors such as the pulp industry in Germany. One can easily imagine that timber needs to be imported to still the growing hunger for wood in Germany which will further decrease the positive effect of energy from biomass on climate.

Issues with soil depletion and the tight timber market require urgently new concepts to satisfy the hunger for re-growing resources and to maintain sustainable forestry in Germany.

This example nicely shows how political intervention for a higher cause like saving the environment can trigger trends negating the originally laudable aim and raises the question of how political actions should/could constantly be matched against developments in the real world. Particularly, in areas that are too important to the world to be left ruled by the market alone.

I am looking forward to reading more details about Australia’s approach for a low pollution future on Monday, 15 December when the White Paper on the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme will be released.

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