Midlands Wood Fuel, Shrewsbury, England
Midlands Wood Fuel won a 2011 Ashden Award for its achievement in reliably supplying high-quality wood-fuel.
Background The West Midlands and Wales have had a long history of forestry and related industries, with one of the highest densities of sawmills found anywhere in the UK. The history of wood use in the area goes back many years, to when it was used to produce charcoal for the smelting of iron. This started to decline with the invention of a blast furnace that burned coke instead of charcoal, at Ironbridge in 1709.
The demand for space and water heating in the UK is about 640,000 GWh, representing about 33% of CO2 emissions. Making better use of the UK’s national wood resource could reduce imports of fossil fuels for heating, and reduce CO2 emissions as well. An estimated additional 4.2 million dry tonnes of wood for fuel use could be extracted from UK forests, which would produce 17,500 GWh, or 2.7% of UK demand for space and water heating, on top of the 2% already supplied by wood and energy crops.
Just a few miles from Ironbridge is Midlands Wood Fuel, a thriving small business that is turning back the tide and increasing the use of wood again, this time to supply heating for homes, businesses and public buildings.
The organisation Midlands Wood Fuel (MWF) was founded in 2004 by Ewan Bent, who had for a time been promoting wood-fuel while working for Marches Energy Agency. Ewan set up the business in order to promote the use of wood-fuel in the region and make sure people installing boilers could be sure of a reliable fuel supply. In 2010, he moved to the post of Commercial Director, with Mark Appleton joining the business as Managing Director, bringing the total number of staff to nine. Most of MWF’s customers are in the West Midlands, and the business is also expanding into neighbouring Gloucestershire and Northwest England. In 2010/11 MWF had an income of over £700,000, mostly from the sale of wood chips, with the rest coming from the sale of wood pellets and consultancy.
The business MWF is built around core values of customer service and the supply of high quality fuel, combined with thorough financial control to improve sustainability. The business buys in seasoned logs to be chipped, and delivers the
fuel produced to customers local to each depot. Wood pellets are also delivered, but are bought in from two UK pellet mills that meet MWF’s quality standards. MWF is currently independent from any particular biomass boiler installer, allowing it to work with all local installers to gain access to new customers. In the past, however, MWF worked closely with an installer, and it is through this that the staff have the expertise to be able to deliver good customer service. MWF has in-depth knowledge of the biomass boilers used by its customers, and tracks their fuel usage relative to their expected demand for heat, so it can warn them if their boiler needs maintenance. This also means it is able to predict when a customer is likely to be running low on fuel, and can check if they would like a delivery. For customers with neighbours who may be disturbed by fuel delivery, MWF delivers at times selected to minimise inconvenience.
How much does it cost and how do users pay? MWF typically charges about 3.2 p/kWh for wood chips, and 4.5 p/kWh for wood pellets. These prices compare to an average of 3.5 p/kWh for domestic gas supply, or 6.3 p/ kWh for domestic heating oil supply. Domestic customers can therefore save money on fuel bills by switching from heating oil to wood pellets, although the capital cost for the boiler and fuel store would need to be factored in. Larger commercial or public sector users are able to buy gas below domestic prices, so at present there are no substantial savings to be made on the fuel itself. However, the Carbon Reduction Commitment requires organisations using over 6,000 MWh/year of electricity, such as local authorities, to buy allowances for CO2 emissions due to all non-transport energy use from 2012. This will make using wood-fuel financially attractive compared to gas. Many organisations also want to make a contribution to reducing global CO2 emissions, and wood-fuel is often a good option to fulfil this goal.
MWF currently has just over 100 customers, about a quarter of whom are domestic and use wood pellets. The larger customers tend to use wood chip, and this represents the majority of MWF’s business. About half of MWF’s wood chip customers buy heat, rather than tonnes of fuel. This makes it simple for the customer to predict costs, without concern about fuel quality. It also gives MWF an incentive to supply high quality and thoroughly dried fuel, to maximise the heat produced and minimise delivery costs. However, it also allows for ENVIRONMENT INDUSTRY MAGAZINE |173|
CASE STUDY
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