Forest owner warns: Firewood is becoming scarce and increasingly expensive

Created: 06/27/2022, 10:00 am

By: Bettina Stuhlweißenburg

Alexander Mayr, WBV Chairman © THOMAS PLETTENBERG

Because many are rediscovering their stoves and planning to use them as an alternative to gas heating in the winter, firewood is becoming scarce and increasingly expensive.

Holzkirchen – The more Putin turns off the gas tap, the more local wood comes into focus as a fuel.

Many people who have used their stoves for decorative purposes until now want to use them next winter to make themselves as independent as possible from gas heating.

What effects does this have on the regional firewood market?

This is answered by Alexander Mayr (52), chairman of the forest owners' association (WBV) Holzkirchen.

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Forest owner warns: Firewood is becoming scarce and increasingly expensive

Mr. Mayr, the gas crisis is coming to a head.

Are people now hoarding firewood for the winter?

In fact, our firewood suppliers are pretty much sold out.

Some people even buy wood that isn't even dry yet.

Does that mean you can no longer get dry wood?

New customers have a hard time.

Regular customers who buy every year are served with priority.

Of course, with the demand, the prices have also increased.

How much does a star of hardwood cost?

With beech you have to reckon with at least 110 to 120 euros.

Hardwood blends can cost about ten euros less.

Spruce, on the other hand, is still available for 75 to 80 euros per star, and the trend is rising.

Depending on whether the Russians turn off the gas tap completely.

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Some were already burning wet wood

Is it even possible to burn wood that is not yet dry?

I cannot recommend anyone to burn fresh wood.

The stove and chimney are covered with soot, and hot oil is poured into the particulate matter discussion.

But if you store the wood properly, you can get it dry until October, provided it is at least a little in front of it.

How do you store it so that it dries well?

Definitely under the roof so it doesn't get wet.

Also sunny and nice and airy.

If you buy fresh wood now, you should buy coniferous wood because it dries faster.

You can buy wood moisture meters in hardware stores.

The wood should have around 15 percent residual moisture or less so that it can be burned optimally and with low emissions.

How many stars do you need as a supply for the coming winter?

It's very difficult to say because it depends on many factors.

Do you only heat with wood?

How big is the living space?

This can range from two stars to 20 stars.

Limited supply of wood: felling more would contradict the principle of sustainability

If demand remains high, when will our forests run out of resources?

It is clear that not all of Germany can switch to wood.

That would not work and would also contradict the principle of sustainability in forestry.

In addition, material recycling, for example as construction timber, has priority over energy.

But firewood does not only consist of logs.

You can also heat with pure residual forest wood in the form of wood chips.

This is wood that is always produced during logging and can no longer be used for anything else.

To date, not inconsiderable quantities of residual coniferous wood have had to be transported to Austria for thermal utilization for forest protection reasons and due to a lack of domestic capacities.

It would make more sense to transport this material over short distances to a local biomass cogeneration plant in order to gain thermal energy from it.

This has been happening in the bio-heating power plants of our MW Biomasse AG for 15 years now.

Incidentally, the demand here is also enormous.

We have never had so many inquiries about building biomass-based heating systems or connecting to existing ones.

I think it makes sense to connect entire settlements or commercial areas to biomass cogeneration plants.

You should have done that much earlier.

But the prejudices and resistance of some municipalities, but also of consumers, were often too great.

The gas was probably too cheap.

to connect entire settlements or commercial areas to biomass cogeneration plants.

You should have done that much earlier.

But the prejudices and resistance of some municipalities, but also of consumers, were often too great.

The gas was probably too cheap.

to connect entire settlements or commercial areas to biomass cogeneration plants.

You should have done that much earlier.

But the prejudices and resistance of some municipalities, but also of consumers, were often too great.

The gas was probably too cheap.