{"id":959,"date":"2018-08-12T18:06:10","date_gmt":"2018-08-12T18:06:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theenergy.coop\/?p=959"},"modified":"2023-08-18T10:41:30","modified_gmt":"2023-08-18T10:41:30","slug":"is-forest-biomass-electricity-carbon-neutral","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theenergy.coop\/test\/blog\/is-forest-biomass-electricity-carbon-neutral\/","title":{"rendered":"Is forest-biomass electricity carbon neutral?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theenergy.coop\/about\/staff\/morgan-pitts\/\">Morgan Pitts<\/a>\u00a08\/26\/18<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Is forest-biomass electricity carbon neutral?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">At The Energy Co-op, we only offer electricity from wind and solar projects. However, another form of renewable energy has been in the news recently: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eia.gov\/energyexplained\/?page=biomass_home\"><span class=\"s2\">Biomass power<\/span><\/a> \u2013 electricity generated by burning wood in power plants instead of coal \u2013 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eia.gov\/todayinenergy\/detail.php?id=26392\"><span class=\"s2\">accounts for approximately 1.6% of US electricity generation and is increasingly used by states in the Southeast to meet renewable energy targets.<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Wood, unlike coal, can be a renewable resource if the forests supplying that resource are managed sustainably. As long as the cycle is closed \u2013 i.e., forests that supply wood fuels are regrown \u2013 then the carbon released when the wood is burned to generate power should ultimately be reabsorbed which would make the cycle carbon neutral (not including any emissions associated with harvest, processing and transportation of wood fuels). The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.epa.gov\/sites\/production\/files\/2018-04\/documents\/biomass_policy_statement_2018_04_23.pdf\"><span class=\"s2\">policy memo<\/span><\/a> released by the EPA in April codifies this view on the carbon neutrality of biomass paving the way for the continued use of biomass as a strategy to meet renewable energy targets.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Despite the EPA\u2019s finding, there are many stakeholders who are not convinced that biomass delivers carbon benefits. Non-profits such as the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dogwoodalliance.org\"><span class=\"s2\">Dogwood Alliance<\/span><\/a> and the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nrdc.org\"><span class=\"s2\">Natural Resources Defense Council<\/span><\/a> contend that biomass power is at least as carbon intensive as coal-fired generation.<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nrdc.org\/experts\/sami-yassa\/chatham-house-study-debunks-biomass-carbon-neutrality\"><span class=\"s2\"> The core of their concern has to do with the timing of emissions<\/span><\/a> \u2013 while trees may ultimately regrow and reabsorb carbon, during the intervening decades between harvest and regrowth to a mature forest, carbon concentrations in the atmosphere will be affected by the use of this energy resource.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Fundamentally, both sides are right. Over time, assuming the forests that supply the biomass fuels are regrown, carbon emissions should balance out. However, in the short term, it is possible that far more carbon will be added to the atmosphere than would be the case were the same electricity generated by wind or solar. At the moment, woody biomass is a very small player in Pennsylvania \u2013 <a href=\"http:\/\/biomassmagazine.com\/plants\/listplants\/biomass\/US\/\"><span class=\"s2\">there is only one power plant in the state that relies solely upon wood as a feedstock<\/span><\/a> \u2013 but it is an interesting issue to follow as it illustrates the complexity of transitioning away from fossil fuels. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Scott Pruitt says yes but others aren\u2019t so sure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8636,"featured_media":1379,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":0},"categories":[117],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.10 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Is forest-biomass electricity carbon neutral? - The Energy Coop<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theenergy.coop\/test\/blog\/is-forest-biomass-electricity-carbon-neutral\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Is forest-biomass electricity carbon neutral? 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