Page 18 - Georgia Forestry - Issue 2 - Spring 2023
P. 18
By T.A. DeFeo
GROWING SUSTAINABLY
An Overview of the Forest-to-Energy Part of Georgia’s Forestry Industry
G eorgia is increasingly a player in forest biomass, the energy
derived from renewable organic material, including trees, plants and plant-derived materials.
The generation of electricity using biomass in the state has grown by more than 80% since 2010. Georgia is home to at least six wood-pellet manufacturing plants, according to
the U.S. Energy Information Administration, and combined, they can produce more than 1.8 million tons annually, most of which go to Europe, where they are burned for energy.
“Biomass is, I would say, the second most reliable resource compared to fossil fuel to provide energy,” said Dequan Xiao, an Associate Professor at the University of New Haven. “Trees have been growing on Earth for millions of years. They have a great potential to produce all these bioresources. ... If one day the fossil fuels really are depleted, I think the next major source of energy could be biomass because of the availability.”
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