Issues
Creating Jobs
Jobs in the thermal biomass sector
Using biomass for heat tends to create more jobs per unit of energy than other uses of biomass because both the manufacturing and the consumption is at smaller,
often community scale. Half of all public schools in Vermont get their heat from automated biomass boilers, and the production, installation and maintenance of those boilers is all very labor-intensive.
More than 100 small businesses based in rural areas produce of new, clean-burning, high efficiency residential wood and pellet stoves and boilers. One company, Hearth and Home Technologies, employs more than 2,000 people. Wood pellet manufacturers employ more than 2,500 people and create tens of thousands of other jobs in the forestry, transportation and retail sector.
On April 28, 2010, a group of non-profits and industry groups laid out a vision and a plan to supply 25% of the space heating demand in the northeastern US by 2025 with renewables. We estimate that this would create 140,216 permanent jobs. The estimate assumes that in the transition from heating oil to biofuels, jobs that already exist in the heating oil sector will migrate to similar activities with biomass.
We are not aware of reliable jobs statistics in the US in the biomass renewable energy field, but German statistics provide an excellent insight into how progressive policies created jobs there. And, it shows that the most jobs are in the biomass sector, compared to other renewable energies. As the chart below shows, there were 95,000, 85,000 for wind and 74,000 for solar. This is in part due to the fact that per unit of energy generated, biomass creates more jobs than wind or solar, according to a number of studies. This is largely because of the annual demand for fuel from the forestry sector.
The Biomass Power Association (BPA), an industry group promoting biomass to electricity, estimates that “biopower generates ten times the number of good-paying jobs found at a typical natural gas-fueled facility.”
BPA says that “each dedicated biomass facility provides up to two jobs per one megawatt of plant capacity, with another two jobs created indirectly for the collection, handling and transportation of the organic fuels used by the plants. This translates into about 7,000 jobs at the nation’s existing biomass facilities, plus another 7,000 jobs outside the plants, mainly in economically depressed rural areas.”
BPA’s figures would not include jobs in the thermal biomass sector, but they are valuable because they may help to illuminate the number of jobs created for the equivalent unit of heat energy in Btus.
In comparison to wind, BPA provides this contrast:
TYPICAL 30 MW WINDFARM
Employs 5 workers and receives $1.6 million in production tax credits — about $320,000 per employee annually
TYPICAL 30 MW BIOPOWER PLANT
Employs 120 workers (in plant and outside), receives $2.2 million in production tax credits — about $18,000 per worker annually.
Europe outpaces America in biomass jobs
In the heating sector, most European countries give generous tax credits for automated biomass furnaces and boilers, creating thousands of manufacturing and service jobs
as can be seen in the bar chart. Because of Europe’s focus on biomass thermal, their limited forest resources go much further. In Denmark, electric heat is now banned in new construction to conserving fossil and renewable generated electricity for efficient uses.
In Austria and other countries, they realized it’s cheaper to meet aggressive climate goals by using biomass to replace fossil fuel heat. Austria is striving to meet 100% of its space heating needs from renewable energy, much of it from biomass, by 2050.
US Residential biomass policy has led to loss of jobs to Europe and China
While the great majority of biomass stoves and boilers sold in the US are made in the US, a growing percentage is now going to Europe for high-end appliances, and to China for low-end appliances. This is the partially the result of neglect of this industry by the US government, which puts virtually little investment into thermal biomass, particularly in comparison to biofuels for transportation and for electricity.
The EPA let emission standards lag, so today most of the cleanest burning boilers and furnaces are made in Europe. The EPA’s neglect of emissions also allows tens of thousands of cheap, highly polluting low-end stoves to be imported into the US from China, year after year, undermining the cleaner burning stoves made here in the US. The Alliance for Green Heat has called on the EPA to enact more stringent emissions requirement and close down the loopholes that allow these polluting stoves made in China to be sold in the US.
US biomass exports to Europe
Increasingly, biomass in the form of wood pellets is being shipped to Europe because low carbon fuels are much more valued there than they are here. In 2008, 20% of US pellets were shipped to Europe.
While this export market creates jobs in the US, the Alliance for Green Heat believes that we should create a larger market in this country for thermal biomass and not ship biomass to Europe or elsewhere. Studies have shown that up to 50% of the energy produced by biomass is used in transport, taking away the low carbon advantage of this fuel.
Sources:
Using biomass for heat tends to create more jobs per unit of energy than other uses of biomass because both the manufacturing and the consumption is at smaller,
often community scale. Half of all public schools in Vermont get their heat from automated biomass boilers, and the production, installation and maintenance of those boilers is all very labor-intensive. More than 100 small businesses based in rural areas produce of new, clean-burning, high efficiency residential wood and pellet stoves and boilers. One company, Hearth and Home Technologies, employs more than 2,000 people. Wood pellet manufacturers employ more than 2,500 people and create tens of thousands of other jobs in the forestry, transportation and retail sector.
On April 28, 2010, a group of non-profits and industry groups laid out a vision and a plan to supply 25% of the space heating demand in the northeastern US by 2025 with renewables. We estimate that this would create 140,216 permanent jobs. The estimate assumes that in the transition from heating oil to biofuels, jobs that already exist in the heating oil sector will migrate to similar activities with biomass.
We are not aware of reliable jobs statistics in the US in the biomass renewable energy field, but German statistics provide an excellent insight into how progressive policies created jobs there. And, it shows that the most jobs are in the biomass sector, compared to other renewable energies. As the chart below shows, there were 95,000, 85,000 for wind and 74,000 for solar. This is in part due to the fact that per unit of energy generated, biomass creates more jobs than wind or solar, according to a number of studies. This is largely because of the annual demand for fuel from the forestry sector.
The Biomass Power Association (BPA), an industry group promoting biomass to electricity, estimates that “biopower generates ten times the number of good-paying jobs found at a typical natural gas-fueled facility.”
BPA says that “each dedicated biomass facility provides up to two jobs per one megawatt of plant capacity, with another two jobs created indirectly for the collection, handling and transportation of the organic fuels used by the plants. This translates into about 7,000 jobs at the nation’s existing biomass facilities, plus another 7,000 jobs outside the plants, mainly in economically depressed rural areas.”
BPA’s figures would not include jobs in the thermal biomass sector, but they are valuable because they may help to illuminate the number of jobs created for the equivalent unit of heat energy in Btus.
In comparison to wind, BPA provides this contrast:
TYPICAL 30 MW WINDFARM
Employs 5 workers and receives $1.6 million in production tax credits — about $320,000 per employee annually
TYPICAL 30 MW BIOPOWER PLANT
Employs 120 workers (in plant and outside), receives $2.2 million in production tax credits — about $18,000 per worker annually.
Europe outpaces America in biomass jobs
In the heating sector, most European countries give generous tax credits for automated biomass furnaces and boilers, creating thousands of manufacturing and service jobs
as can be seen in the bar chart. Because of Europe’s focus on biomass thermal, their limited forest resources go much further. In Denmark, electric heat is now banned in new construction to conserving fossil and renewable generated electricity for efficient uses. In Austria and other countries, they realized it’s cheaper to meet aggressive climate goals by using biomass to replace fossil fuel heat. Austria is striving to meet 100% of its space heating needs from renewable energy, much of it from biomass, by 2050.
US Residential biomass policy has led to loss of jobs to Europe and China
While the great majority of biomass stoves and boilers sold in the US are made in the US, a growing percentage is now going to Europe for high-end appliances, and to China for low-end appliances. This is the partially the result of neglect of this industry by the US government, which puts virtually little investment into thermal biomass, particularly in comparison to biofuels for transportation and for electricity.
The EPA let emission standards lag, so today most of the cleanest burning boilers and furnaces are made in Europe. The EPA’s neglect of emissions also allows tens of thousands of cheap, highly polluting low-end stoves to be imported into the US from China, year after year, undermining the cleaner burning stoves made here in the US. The Alliance for Green Heat has called on the EPA to enact more stringent emissions requirement and close down the loopholes that allow these polluting stoves made in China to be sold in the US.
US biomass exports to Europe
Increasingly, biomass in the form of wood pellets is being shipped to Europe because low carbon fuels are much more valued there than they are here. In 2008, 20% of US pellets were shipped to Europe.
While this export market creates jobs in the US, the Alliance for Green Heat believes that we should create a larger market in this country for thermal biomass and not ship biomass to Europe or elsewhere. Studies have shown that up to 50% of the energy produced by biomass is used in transport, taking away the low carbon advantage of this fuel.
Sources:
- Henry Spelter and Daniel Toth, “North America’s Wood Pellet Sector,” USDA, 2009.
- “Heating the Northeast with Renewable Biomass: A Vision for 2025,” BTEC, Alliance for Green Heat, et al. 2009.
- Arne Jungjohann & Björn Jahnke, “Europe: Creating New Jobs with Renewable Energies,” Heinrich Boll Foundation, 2009.
- Daniel Richter, et al, “Wood Energy in America,” Science Magazine, Vol. 323, March 13, 2009.
- “Thermal Energy Uses of Woody Biomass,” Rural Voices for Conservation Coalition, 2009.
- “Policy Statement: Forest Biomass,” The Forest Guild, 2010.
- “Wood Pellet Heating: A Reference on Wood Pellet Fuels & Technology for Small Commercial & Institutional Systems,” Massachusetts Division of Energy Resources, 2007.
- “Helping Biopower Help America: Extending Production Tax Credit Vital for Jobs, Clean Electricity and Energy Independence, Biomass Power Association, 2009.