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Online database of North American wood to energy facilities |
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The
U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities has a database of
industrial and elected community-scale users of wood to energy
facilities across North America.
The site, Wood2Energy (
www.wood2energy.org ), is a searchable database open to anyone with
interest in the state of wood to energy conversion at a national,
state/provincial or local operating level.
According to Oregon
State University College of Forestry, a staggering 55 percent of all
wood harvested in the world, is consumed as fuel. For almost half of
the world's population, wood is the principal energy source for cooking
and eating. In contrast, wood accounts for about 3 percent of total
energy usage in North America with the greatest concentration of use
being by the forest industry which leads all sectors in supplying a
significant portion of its own energy needs.
The Wood2Energy
database provides the most comprehensive and up-to-date information of
its type, said Endowment president Carlton Owen. Such information is
vital to making sound planning and business decisions to expand uses of
wood for energy while protecting the longterm sustainability of North
Americas rich forested estate.
Data accessible in the
Wood2Energy system includes green energy developed and used on-site as
a byproduct of a primary manufacturing process such as that produced by
sawmills or pulp and paper mills the largest single producers of
energy from woody biomass. It also includes the growing number of
facilities dedicated to conversion of wood to energy.
Wood2Energy
was developed by the University of Tennessee Office of Bioenergy
Programs with funding from the U.S. Endowment for Forestry and
Communities; American Forest and Paper Association; Forest Products
Association of anada; as well as the respective federal natural
resources agencies from the U.S. and Canada the USDA Forest Service
and Natural Resources Canada. Additional assistance was provided by the
Sun Grant Initiative.
The system is being continuously updated
to ensure that it is as comprehensive as is practical. It presents
information in tabular as well as map form. The system includes a means
for individual facilities to update their information to ensure the
most up-to-date data is available.
www.usendowment.org
www.utbioenergy.org
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