Forest Bioenergy and Biomass for Georgia

Forest bioenergy is the use of renewable forestry biomass to produce energy products. Forest biomass is any plant or tree material produced by forest growth. Forest landowners and existing forest industry have the potential to grow this new bioenergy industry rapidly by providing the needed biomass fuel and infrastructure for new mills that will produce wood pellets, industrial heat, electricity, and transportation fuels.
       
       Types of Forest Biomass
       Forest Bioenergy Products
       Forest Biomass Sustainability
       Forest Biomass for Landowners and Foresters
       Forest Biomass for Industry
       Forest Bioenergy Research and Reference Information


Overview of Forest Bioenergy

Table 1: Integration of bioenergy with the forest industry (source: Nathan McClure, GFC)

Georgia’s forest product industry has historically used mill residues such as bark, sawdust, otherwise unusable wood, and process fluids, to produce much of their own energy needs. In fact, the industry produced 2.4% of the total electricity generation in Georgia in 2006 (Energy Information Administration). Expanding this utilization to logging residues and low quality trees will enable Georgia’s forest product industry to expand into energy as a marketable product. The diagram below illustrates how this integration has begun to occur from the forest landowner through the industry infrastructure and finally to bioenergy production at newly operating facilities. Many other facilities are in the planning process.


Forest Biomass Policy
Georgia’s Clean Energy Tax Credit - Georgia offers tax credits for certain types of energy efficient and renewable energy property as well as for the delivery of wood residuals to qualified biomass facilities. For instructions on benefitting from this tax incentive visit the Georgia Environmental Finance Authority.

Biomass Crop Assistance Program (BCAP) - The USDA Farm Service Agency is providing incentives for qualified biomass crop production and delivery, as established by the 2008 Farm Bill. Although the program was initially implemented beginning in late 2009, it was postponed beginning in March 2010 and will resume after final implementation rules are established by USDA.

Renewable Fuels Standards - The U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency has developed implementation rules for the production of biofuels  directed by the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA). These rules establish a definition of biomass that restricts forest biomass materials used for liquid transportation biofuels to logging residues, “pre-commercial” thinning materials, or any biomass originating from forest plantations established prior to December 2007. This requires biofuels producers, such as Range Fuels, to maintain records on biomass sourcing. This includes documents showing proof of plantation establishment by landowners. See Biofuels Markets Require Land Management Records for more information (to be posted by September 2010).