Nagano Prefecture to Introduce Carbon Offset Scheme for Wood Pellet Stoves

The Laboratory of Earth Conscious Life, a nonprofit organization (NPO) in Ina City, Nagano Prefecture, has been working to build and introduce a carbon offset scheme for stoves and boilers fueled by wood pellets. This scheme, set up in collaboration with relevant administrations and businesses, is expected to start across the prefecture in 2009.

Unlike fossil fuels, wood biomass--such as wood pellets--is considered not to increase the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere when burned. Therefore, using wood pellets instead of fossil fuels is thought to reduce CO2 emissions. Under this scheme, the amount of the reduced CO2 will be counted as points, and sponsor companies will be able to offset their emissions by purchasing the points.

The Laboratory of Earth Conscious Life will serve as an exchange center, at which users of pellet stoves cash the points they receive when purchasing wood pellets. The users can also choose to donate the points for forest preservation activities, instead of cashing them in.

Nagano Prefecture, where forests cover 80 percent of the land area, has been promoting the use of wood biomass in order to effectively use local forest resources as well as to protect forests.　Since the use of pellets made of wood thinned from tree plantations contributes to forest maintenance, the number of pellet stove users is increasing. In the prefecture, 1,400 tons of pellets are consumed for stoves or boilers annually; this will cut about 1,700 tons of CO2 emissions, according to the NPO's estimates.

- Wood Pellets Regain Popularity for Biomass Utilization (Related JFS article)
http://www.japanfs.org/en/pages/025193.html

Posted: 2009/02/05 06:00:15 AM