Forest2Market CEO Pete Stewart Publishes “Forest to Fuel: The State of Bioenergy”

In “Forest to Fuel: The State of Bioenergy,” which appears in the March 2009 issue of Panel World, Forest2Market President and CEO Pete Stewarts looks at the state of the bioenergy industry in the U.S. South. Looking specifically at wood pellet manufacturing, biopower generators—including co-firing wood with coal, converting coal plants to wood burning ones, and independent power producers building new plants on greenfield sites—and cellulosic ethanol, Stewart hones in on the segments of the industry that are likely to be most successful.

Stewart concludes that in order to prepare for the future, those who have operated in the forest products supply chain for some time must accept energy as a forest product. With the amount of capital flowing into new energy and with utilities co-firing with wood on a significant scale, the energy value of wood is certainly equivalent to the value of other pulpwood products. Depending on future events in energy markets, a day may come in which the energy value of wood eclipses that of other forest products as well.