WHY WOOD?
 "What happens next is up to us"
When the Stern report on climate change was released at the end of October 2007 the Prime Minister said "action cannot wait....we simply do not have the luxury of time".
Increasingly governments around the world are recognising a substantial reduction in CO2 emissions is essential and "what happens next is up to us". Our goverment have announced that they intend to set new statutory targets for cutting CO2 emissions in this country by 60% by 2050. More recently they have commited considerable funding to this area and agreed to the EU target taht 20% of all eurpoes energy should come from renewable sources by 2020.
Whereas wind and other renewables can generally be used to generate electricity only; wood fuel, which is virtually carbon neutral, can replace fossil fuels in all areas of the energy market i.e. heating, electricity generation and transport fuels.
Further more renewable energy technology, in the form of wood burning boilers, is "oven ready", reliable, fully tried and tested, widely available for immediate installation and can operate 24/7 at the flick of a switch.
 Biomass energy can be used on demand, if necessary year round and is not dependent on external factors such as the weather. This allows it to be used in a wide range of applications. Modern wood fuel heating boilers are reliable, cheaper to run, highly automated and fuel efficient,, produce very little ash and are significantly more environmentally sound then coal, oil or gas fuel alternatives. Furthermore, such boilers can now be reversed to provide air conditioning in the summer. Wood heating is well established in Europe and, for example, Sweden plans to replace all fossil fuels with renewable's by 2020, most of which will come from wood.
In many European countries there are already a variety of small, wood fuelled CHP power plants, providing heat and power for the local town, village, hospital or factory. CHP is a very efficient way (about 80% +)of generating electricity and heat which can be produced together in a single process. Conventional electricity generation is quite inefficient, more than half the energy which goes into Britain's power plants never reaches our sockets. Heat is lost up the chimney in power stations and electricity is lost in transmission down the power lines in the form of heat.
The latest reports from the Renewable Energy Foundation (REF) using official OFGEM figures, confirm that not a single onshore wind turbine in mainland Britain would be commercially viable without massive hidden subsidies. Furthermore wind is so unreliable that turbines only generate, on average, 28% of their capacity. REF reports that we will have to build up to 12 new back-up conventional power stations to support all the intended onshore turbines when the wind is not blowing.
Wood fuel will offer an important diversification opportunity for forestry, timber processing businesses and woodland management and this will help to improve the economics of woodland and forestry management in the UK. As we have said, it is carbon neutral and as such its use can lead to reductions in emissions of CO2 when it replaces fossil fuels. Further more, energy from woodchip is one of the lowest cost of all renewable energy resources. In Wales the new Glastir woodland management grant will give a further boost to the woodland owner and the production economics of wood fuel.
 Pathfinder Renewable Energy sources all its product in Wales. The woodchip is processed largely from local, virgin and sometimes wasted wood in the form of branches, snedded tops, thinning's, local authority pruning's, saw mill off-cuts and clean (raw) timber.Wales has a large under utilised natural timber resource. The Forestry Commission estimates that up to 500,000 tonnes of extra wood fuel a year could be produced from currently un or under managed native woodland in Wales.
By converting this into a usable biomass energy source, value is added and at the same time the economics of the forestry industry and woodland management will be changed for the better. The company's objectives are to be the first to market in South East Wales and to convert all kinds of "clean" wood into a viable and environmentally friendly biofuel to provide heat, energy and CHP.
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