Why do people use wood pellets?
The use of wood pellets depends on the objective. Pellet fuel can be used for various reasons: from 100% carbon neutral heating (home and/or business) to horse bedding, for example. For clarification, we wrote an article on what wood pellets are here.
If wood pellets are manufactured from sustainable sources, with proper technology, and delivered on short distances from local storing depots, they represent a zero carbon heating option for any home or business.
This is the main reason we at Balcas Energy are promoting the sustainability story of our pellets, as we make them in lour two local plants in Northern Ireland and Scotland, from wood obtained from our local sustainable forests. Using green energy for manufacturing the pellets is another factor that contributes to the carbon neutral benefit. You can read about the entire manufacturing process in Balcas Energy* here.
Climate change is a real threat to our planet and it’s one of the most important reasons why home owners and businesses opt in for renewable energy. Using pellets as a renewable fuel can benefit the climate thanks to a two-fold displacement effect:
- First, energy is produced from biomass when it would otherwise have been produced by fossil-fuel energy, so significant emissions are avoided by keeping those fuels in the ground.
- Additionally, the alternative fate of wood residue would most likely be to rot and decay, emitting greenhouse gases as it did so.
While the action of burning wood waste itself creates CO2, the net effect is beneficial because of these displacement effects.
The triple carbon benefit of forest biomass:
Trees sequester carbon as they grow.
Carbon is locked away in timber products that displace carbon-intensive products.
At end of life, forest products can be converted into carbon neutral energy and used for heating and generating electricity.
*Balcas Energy is the largest manufacturer and distributor of wood pellets in the UK and Ireland. We manufacture the fuel and deliver it all year round. Online ordering is available 24/7.