BIOMASS – FUELWOOD
Leading wood-producing department in the Région Sud Provence Alpes Côte d'Azur and 3rd department in terms of forest area.
In the Alpes de Haute Provence, the forest is spread over 393,000 ha, i.e. 56% of the territory.
The forest area therefore plays a decisive role at economic (employment), social, cultural (relaxation, tourism), and environmental (protection of habitat, air, soil, water, etc.) levels.
An annual harvest in 2013 of approximately 234,000 m3 which makes this department the leading wood producer in the Région Sud Provence Alpes Côte d'Azur.
A prevalence of softwood forest trees (Scots pine, larch, black pine).
40% of forests PEFC certified
53% of the forest is private with high fragmentation
Logging companies in the department:
Wood chips (valorisation of softwood)
Taking difficulty of access and the fragmentation of both public and private forests into consideration, the department's potential has been evaluated at 112,000 tonnes per year.
Overall the production of softwood in the forests of the department (724,000 m3/year):
- 394,000 m3 / year are exploitable for industry
- 160,000m3/ year are exploitable for fuelwood
- The remainder is used for timber (frame).
In the Alpes de Haute Provence, 41 % of softwood is exploited (much more than in the other departments, with an average of 24% for the Région Sud Provence Alpes Côte d'Azur). The price of woodchips is 2.5 cts KWh for 75% of the mobilizable resource
Waste (valorisation of wood from brush clearing)
In the Alpes de Haute Provence the available source of waste wood is not high.
Related sawmill products (wood from scrap)
1,800 tonnes/ year (decrease related to problems of access) The closing of sawmills in the department is resulting in a decrease in sources of wood from scrap.
However the territories in the Ubaye Valley and the Verdon Valley are initiating wood cluster projects: primary and secondary processing sawmills, installation of artisans, etc.
Woodchip: 2,390 Tonnes of CO2 avoided, 760 TEP substituted and 2.3 FTP of employment.
In January 2016, in the Alpes de Haute Provence, there were:
56 collective wood-fired heating plants using 13,658 tonnes of wood chips. They accumulate 1.7 MW. For every 10,000 tonnes used in heating plants, 9 jobs were created.
Thus, the heating plants to be found on the territory of the Alpes de Haute Provence cover 12.3 FTP.
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