According to recent reports, during 2014 the UK imported 4.6 million tons of wood pellets. The largest US importer of steel, exported 3.6 million tons of pellets, 75% of which were sold in the UK. The rest of the amount of pellets was supplied by Canada and the European Union. The cost of wood pellets, imported to the UK, is about 875 million dollars.
This demand is due to a small number of large coal-fired power plants, translated into the use of the biomass fuels. According to the forecasts, the needs of the British in the pellet will grow over the next several years, during which three more power plants will be transferred to biofuel. After that, the consumption of pellets will be stabilized.
Today within the UK around 10 million tons of lumber, that are needed in various sectors, such as construction, manufacturing fiberboard and heat generation, are produced. Simultaneously, the United Kingdom shows an increase in the production of wood fuel from 500 thousand tons in 2007 to 1.5 million tons in 2010, which significantly affected on the condition of forests and the timber industry. According to the reports, processing of softwood in 2017 - 2021 years, will reach the level of 12 million tons.
At the same time expected to reach the level of 2,900 megawatts of power generation, which is possible in case of the commissioning of all planned projects. In this case, the power supply will need about 13 - 13 million tons of pellets annually, that greatly exceed current market volume.
