New statistics on firewood consumption

The new study confirms consumption levels from recent years.

The Danish Energy Agency has commissioned FORCE Technology (in collaboration with the Danish Technological Institute) to carry out a new study of firewood consumption in Denmark on the basis of more than 2,000 interviews. This is twice as many as in previous studies. The new study is therefore significantly more reliable than the previous studies.

The new study confirms consumption levels from recent years. Total consumption in 2009 was 25.1 PJ. In the previous study from 2007, firewood consumption was calculated at 27.2 PJ.

According to the new study, half of the firewood is obtained from private hedges, gardens, windbreaks and similar, while forestry accounts for almost a quarter of firewood supply.



Figure 1: Break-down of firewood consumption in TJ.

The number of woodstoves (incl. fireplaces and masonry stoves) in homes and holiday homes totals about 750,000. In addition to this comes a more uncertain number of logwood boilers at about 30,000.

In addition to information on consumption of firewood and the number of stoves etc., the new study includes information about the age of woodstoves and boilers and the number of woodstoves with the Nordic Swan ecolabel. This information has been included for use by the Danish Environmental Protection Agency in assessing emissions from wood-burning stoves.

The results and description of methodologies etc. are in the new report on firewood consumption on the Danish Energy Agency website.

Contact:
Peter Dal, Chief Advisor, tel: +45 3392 7503, e-mail: pd@ens.dk
Anders Evald, FORCE Technology, tel: +45 7215 7750, e-mail: aev@force.dk
Lars Nikolaisen, Danish Technological Institute, tel: +45 7220 1302, e-mail: lars.nikolaisen@teknologisk.dk

The study "Firewood consumption in Denmark 2009", Force Technology.

Peter Dal
Chefkonsulent
Center for Energiressourcer
Tlf.: 3392 7503
pd@ens.dk
 

Ali A. Zarnaghi
Fuldmægtig
Center for Klima og Energiøkonomi
Tlf.: 33 92 68 40
aaz@ens.dk