80 million ash trees. Why not use them in power stations to generate power?

[Joseph Anton]

Whether we like it or not over the next few years we will have to cut down and burn most of our 80 million ash trees.

Ash Die Back disease has arrived on the wind and cannot be treated nor can it be prevented from spreading. So sooner or later around 95% of our ash trees will get the disease and have to be destroyed.

So why not start cutting them down now. We could kiln dry any useable timber and shred the rest for use in wood burning power stations such as Drax. The alternative is to simply burn them where they are cut and gain nothing but pollution in return.

[geared]

I expect the lot needs to be burnt for environmental purposes or something.

 

Weather or not it makes its way to a wood burning power station probably depends on if there's the infrastructure to get it there.

[anywebsite]

They probably are. I think Drax is being converted to burn biomass (wood). Problem is it's much less energy dense than coal, so it costs more to process & transport.

 

They can't cut all the ash trees down, as you say it's 95% that will probably be affected. So 5% might survive & be resistant to the disease, they'll need to see which ones those are.