France's renewed taste for wood heating

[jpak]

http://www.euractiv.com/en/energy/france-renewed-taste-wood-heating/article-155372

Sales of modern wood-based stoves, heaters and fireplace inserts are shooting up in France with about 6 million households equipped today, according to ADEME, the French environment and energy agency.

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"If France is deprived of oil, in contrast, it has a lot of wood," says Jean-Christophe Pouët, a coordinator for wood heating at ADEME who explains France's renewed taste for wood with a rural tradition of open fireplaces and rising energy prices.

In 2005, sales of modern wood stoves, fireplace inserts and boilers shot up 23% to reach 430,334 units sold against 348,080 units on the previous year, ADEME says. With 9.3 million tonne oil equivalent (mtoe) per year, France is the first country in Europe for wood heating, ahead of Sweden (8.2 mtoe) and Finland (7.2 mtoe).

The forestry sector is set to benefit from this renewed taste for wood. "The French forest is the third in Europe in terms of area covered after Sweden and Finland," says Pouët. "The potential is huge", he says, adding that consumption could double to reach 19 million tonne oil equivalent (mtoe) per year. However, a French energy law, voted on in July 2005, has an objective to increase heating wood by only 4 mtoe by 2010.

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[benburch]

1. I want a corn stove.

Why go through all the hassle of making corn into alcohol when you can burn it directly?

[hunter]

2. It seems wrong to burn food.

:shrug:

Too much Catholic Guilt about starving kids in Africa, I suppose...

There are some very efficient field crops that can be made into fuel pellets. Pellet mills are not the kind of technology that requires massive centralization. Any town might have it's own pellet mill and storage facilities.

[benburch]

3. Well, most corn isn't food, except for cattle.

People just don't eat the sort of corn that you burn in these stoves. You COULD, I suppose, mill it into corn meal, but really much of the corn that gets grown fattens livestock, trading vegetable calories for meat calories at about a 5% efficiency.

[hunter]

5. Too true.

.

[Sequoia]

7. I want to pop corn in my stove.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

4. There goes the air quality

.

[rfkrfk]

6. what is cost of wood in France?

how does it compare to fuel corn?

I'm guessing, but burning corn could probably be
much cheaper than natural gas.

corn, 380,000 BTU per bushel.