Where do your wood pellets come from?

Wood pellets are made in several places around Britain, and in many countries around the world.

Forever Fuels aims to support local production wherever possible. But we do not lower the bar for these producers. All producers must meet our high quality-standards, and must be able to supply at a price that does not increase costs to our customers. And we must be certain that we always have plenty of suitable pellets to satisfy our customers' demands. We therefore also contract with large-scale pellet-producers to ensure we have a baseload supply of quality-controlled pellets.

There is currently only one large-scale pellet-producer in the UK - Balcas of Enniskillen, Northern Ireland. There are several smaller plants in operation, and a number of larger plants under development. However, the difficulty of production in the UK is demonstrated by the recent bankruptcy of one producer (Welsh Biofuels) and the decision of another (Fast Forward Fuels) to cease operation.

Outside of the UK, large-scale production plants are located in Europe and North and South America (and in other parts of the world, but not usually for shipping to the UK).

Some parts of continental Europe have a very much larger wood-pellet infrastructure than us, particularly Austria and Sweden, which have led the way with this technology. There is a large market in west-central Europe for pellets produced in the Austrian neighbourhood, and transport of pellets from there to the UK is neither efficient nor cheap.

So most of the European pellets available for the UK market come from northern Europe - particularly Scandinavia (primarily Sweden and Finland), the Baltic countries (Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia) and Russia. The Swedes and Finns are particularly advanced in trading pellets internationally, both their own and those produced by their north-European neighbours.

Forever Fuels is proud to be working with Skellefteå Kraft, one of the largest and longest-established producers in Sweden to bring their high-quality pellets to the UK market.

The Canadians and Americans have a huge resource, and are beginning to invest to turn some of their wood into pellet fuel. We will probably see more of their pellets entering the European market in the coming years.

Argentina, Chile and several other South American countries are also starting to export their pellets. No pellets are produced or exported from Amazonian rainforest or other essential habitats (even if one wanted to, the types of wood are not ideal for pelletization).

Although it is a long way to travel, and wood is not a particularly dense fuel, the energy, environmental and economic costs of shipping are much lower per mile than for transport by land, the product is not perishable, and pellets are a relatively dense form of wood (compared to wood chip), so it is neither impractical nor environmentally absurd to bring the fuel from this distance. After all, our fossil fuels have usually travelled a long way by the time they get to us. Only a small fraction of the energy content of the pellets is consumed in their transport by boat from distant sources.

Our suppliers are selected according to their ability to meet our specifications and quality requirements, and within those constraints, they are chosen on the basis of price, reliability, and relationship, so that we can provide our customers with the most secure and sustainable, highest-quality and best-value pellets possible.