Richard Bruton
Question:1301. Deputy Richard Bruton asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the current amount of land being used in biomass production. [38271/23]
View answerMonday, 11 September 2023
Questions (1301)
Written answers
Biomass covers a wide range of materials and processes, including purpose-grown energy crops, forest thinning, waste material and timber by-products.
Ireland's forests provide the main source of biomass. Our forest estate covers 11.6 % of the land surface and amounts to over 808,848 hectares. A significant amount of this area will produce biomass over its lifetime when forests are managed for commercial purposes. Some forests managed for amenity and biodiversity will not produce any biomass. My Department does not retain figures for exact areas of biomass production and reports timber production and its assorted products based on national projections.
The Council for Forest Research and Development (COFORD) provides estimates of forecast supply of Wood Fibre. It states that there is potential to produce wood energy from biomass in Ireland and estimates that the latter will rise to 1.9 million cubic metres by 2030, an increase from the forecast 1.5 million cubic metres in 2023.
My Department will continue to encourage policies, steps and measures to increase the use of wood biomass from thinnings where they support the sustainable management of forests.