This report was commissioned by the Forestry Commission Scotland (now Scottish Forestry) and the Scottish Government as background material for its review of support for large and small scale biomass electricity only plant under the Renewables Obligation Scotland.

Our work has been to assess what is the best use of wood fibre given demands from different users, and to consider the circumstances when it might be appropriate to use wood fibre for electricity generation, and at what scale.

We have found that a threshold can be justified, in part because of greenhouse emission levels but also because of the need to limit wider impacts on Scotland’s wood fibre resource.