What wood chips have to do with bark beetles

09/25/2023

Source: Energy & Management Powernews

The natural gas retail price has fallen only slightly in the third quarter from a relatively high level. The competitor energy source wood chips, on the other hand, remained virtually stable in price.

Chips have become slightly more expensive or cheaper between the second and third quarter, depending on the quality. The German Pellet Institute (Depi) reported on 21 September for the medium quality Enplus A2 a nationwide average price of converted net 3.27 Ct/kWh after 2.97 Ct/kWh in the second quarter. This corresponds to 26.72 euros/shaped cubic meter (SRM) after 26.70 euros/SRM for a typical delivery of 80 loose-shaped SRM within a radius of 50 kilometers.

The best quality Enplus A1 discounted from 4.667 Ct/kWh to 4.41 Ct/kWh. The lowest quality class Enplus B increased marginally by 0.02 Ct/kWh to 2.47 Ct/kWh. The qualities differed in water, ash and fines content. Prices had almost returned to pre-war levels, Depi commented.

Lower demand was thus matched by lower supply. By way of explanation, the Depi indicated that sawmills were processing less logs due to the sluggish construction sector. As a result, there was also less sawmill waste, so-called coppice or co-products in the form of sawdust, bark content and, indeed, wood chips.

In addition, wood infested by the bark beetle is processed into wood chips. Forest cutting to protect against the pest, Depi said, "appears to be shifting further south from the northern low mountain range" - and with it, some of the wood chip supply.

Here are the average prices of selected heating energy sources converted to Ct/kWh net prices through the third quarter. It can be seen that natural gas (dark gray) has become cheaper from the relatively highest level, while heating oil (black) has become more expensive. Below the different qualities of wood chips (green, orange, light gray). Not struck up in such Statstiken the storage expenditure, which is void with natural gas To the full view please click on the diagram source: Depi

Author: Georg Eble

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