United Kingdom: UK Wood Pellet Market
Through EU and UK political and regulatory policy interventions, renewable fuel (e.g. wood pellets) has been incentivized as a vehicle to help de-carbonize the energy sector. Conversion of existing coal firing electricity plants to solid biomass fuel is the quickest and most cost-effective method for the UK to make significant renewable energy gains. Infrastructure investment and private sector relationships have been increasing on both sides of the Atlantic to the extent that the US is now the largest supplier of industrial wood pellets to both the UK and the EU (60 percent market share). The US is expected to ship wood pellets with a value of approximately $530 million (Free On Board basis) to the UK in 2014, and this is likely to increase over the following few years, before plateauing. The UK government was the first in Europe to introduce sustainability criteria for solid biomass.
