This is the first time I’ve seen them reporting on wood pellets, which would indicate they’re showing up on the climate commies radar with inbound regulations and taxes leading to higher prices. I have a biofuel wood pellet stove, and it’s actually quite nice in providing heat by using pellets made from sawmill waste aiding in keeping wood prices lower. The pellets burn quite clean compared to a regular wood fire and you don’t get the creosote buildup in your chimney, and I don’t even smell them burning from right outside the house. Consequently, it’s a fabulous backup heat source if there is an issue with your gas furnace, and currently a 40 lb bag is $6.49. Pellet stoves are also automated where you set a level and it keeps feeding pellets automatically, e.g. level 1 is about a constant 8,000 BTU (arctic cold fronts from Canada are the only times I need to run it at a higher level). And after 2-3 hours you just need to top up the hopper with pellets, and clean out the ash when you see it build up at the bottom, which is super easy with a shop vacuum. Moreover, CO2 is not a pollutant and the source of life for plants as oxygen is for us, so it will be a shame if they mess up what is a wonderful supplemental way to heat your dwelling.
By P Gosselin
Wood pellets are often viewed as an alternative, climate-friendly energy source, especially for heating. But an analysis shows this is not the case at all.
CO2 emitted [kg]. Data source: German Ministry of the Environment
Though it is claimed that the CO2 from burning biomass like trees remains in the natural carbon cycle, the CO2-absorbing trees are often commercially chopped down, pelletized and burned, thus emitting years worth of CO2 sequestration in just a matter of hours. Live trees recapturing that same emitted CO2 and storing it in the form of biomass takes decades.
Wood emits the most
How much CO2 does the production of one megawatt-hour of energy emit by different fuels? This is answered at FB by the account Umwelt- und Klimathemen. They write:
Isn’t it almost the same whether I burn wood from a 150-year-old oak tree in pellet form in my heating system or whether I burn coal that has been in the ground for thousands of years? Both the wood and the coal release the carbon dioxide they once filtered out of the air when they burn.
According to the German Ministry of the Environment, burning wood produces even more carbon dioxide than fossil fuels such as coal and gas.
– 202 kg of carbon dioxide for natural gas
– 340 kg carbon dioxide for hard coal
– 403 kg carbon dioxide woodBut for the climate, it doesn’t matter where the carbon dioxide comes from!
That’s why heating with wood is not climate neutral!
Even if we make pellets from our wood, it is still wood that enriches our atmosphere with carbon dioxide when it is burned.”
Wood emits double the CO2 that natural gas does. Never mind the particulates burning wood entails.