The UK is a major consumer of granulated products. The UK's granule consumption levels are significantly higher than in other countries. Major Canadian and US supply. 70% of export granules from Canada enter the UK's thermal power stations. By the end of 2016, the UK's granule imports exceeded 7.1 million tons.
In the UK, Belgium and the Netherlands, the use of pellets to meet population needs is negligible. Particle demand is mainly from large power stations. Large-scale consumption of wood pellets in power stations is due to the EU's requirement to use renewable energy by 2020.
For the first time in the past 10 years, the UK has reduced imports of wood pellets. This year's decline was 3%, which occurred in 2017. At the same time, imports from the United States to the UK decreased by two-thirds (1.9%). .
A 3% drop in imports is negligible and is related to the planned cessation of many energy facilities.
We have noticed that there is no fierce competition in today's pellet market. Europe's consumption may be ten times higher than current supply, because there are still many coal-fired power plants that are willing to convert into pellets. Exports from the US to the UK are reduced, this is their The main particle sales market is likely to be related to the reconstruction of many power plants, which usually have pellet plants in the US. In addition, the US is actively developing its own pellet market - about 25% of pellet products are sold domestically. If the market is closed to the US, it may happen in 2020.
Since the United States has not signed the Paris Climate Agreement, they will use granules locally.
In the first nine months of 2017, the EU imported 4,611,000 tons of wood pellets. The largest pellets were shipped from Estonia to Denmark, Latvia to the UK and Denmark.
Among the reasons behind the backlog, logistics-related challenges are highlighted, namely long distances and high transportation costs, as well as low availability and high financing costs (for example, updating production lines to meet increasingly stringent product quality requirements).
The world's largest consumer of wood pellets is the United Kingdom (6.7 million tons), followed by the United States (2.8 million tons) and Italy (2.1 million tons).
Table 1. Changes in UK pellet consumption
News from the British Energy Corporation
In the UK, two projects to convert industrial pellets – the 420 MW Lynemouth power station and Middlesbrough TPS Teesside – are currently in trial operation or in construction.
Figure 1: Lynemouth Power Station, generating only 420 megawatts (MW)
The owner of the Drax power station also recently announced plans to rebuild the fourth generator set to operate with pellet fuel. It is unclear how many hours this facility will work each year. However, given the facts of making investment decisions, according to some approximate estimates, it It will consume approximately 900,000 tons of wood pellets per year.
Figure 2: Drax power station produces 6% of UK electricity and 11% of total renewable electricity
