In line with the objectives of sustainable development, Finland makes serious efforts to promote the use of renewable natural resources. The Government gave a Resolution on promoting the use of wood and wood building on 17 March 2005. The value of wood product exports should be doubled by 2010. To reach this objective, the SMEs in the sector need support especially in the development of operative models and increasing exports.
Wood-based energy means energy produced from forest biomass. Logging waste from regeneration felling, small-diameter wood from thinnings, residual lyes from pulp manufacture and chips and sawdust from sawmills can be utilised for energy, mainly to be used in heat and electricity production. Very likely in the future wood-based liquid fuels will also be produced, partly substituting for oil in heating and transportation.
In the 2000s wood-based energy sources have represented about 20% of the total energy consumption in Finland. Most of this, about 70 TWh, has originated from the by-products of the use of wood in forest industry, i.e. bark, chips and residual lyes. About 40% of the wood raw material used in the industry is at some stage of the production process utilised as energy.
Tree crowns, branches, twigs, stems and stumps derived from the management of commercial forests and regeneration fellings are not suited as raw material for the industry. As chips, however, they can be used as energy sources. The use of forest chips has quadrupled in Finland in the 2000s. In 2008 a total of 4.6 million cubic metres of forest chips were burned, most of this in heat and power plants. In accordance with the national climate and energy objectives, the use of forest chips should increase to more than 12 million cubic metres by 2020. This would correspond to about 24 TWh of energy. Besides forest chips, more wood pellets should also be used in Finland.