The U.S. and the European industrial wood pellet industry

The U.S. industrial wood pellet industry is positioned for future growth.

It’s a time of optimism in the wood biomass industry. Not only is there growing recognition that sustainable biomass is a viable climate solution, governments are increasingly incorporating it into policies that will help them achieve their low-carbon and renewable energy goals for the next decade and beyond.

Chief among these policies is the European Union’s revised Renewable Energy Directive for 2012-’30 (or RED II), which has been a major focus for us at the U.S. Industrial Pellet Association. The RED II effort to harmonize bioenergy sustainability across EU Member States was an important one, and something the industry strongly supports because of the positive influence it can have on the trade of wood pellets.

The final RED II supports bioenergy as a pathway to lowering carbon emissions, and allows Member States to use sustainable imported biomass to achieve the low-carbon and renewable energy goals recommended in the Paris Agreement. In short, RED II sets us up for another decade (or more) of supplying the European market.

As we continue to see strong markets in Europe, combined with expected growth from Asia and new sectors, and we are entering an exciting time industry, and there are some new opportunities on the horizon.

Looking Ahead   

The pellet industry has invested over $2 billion in the U.S. Southeast region over the past decade to develop a sophisticated infrastructure and tap into underutilized supply chains. As a result, we can effectively deploy our product around the world.

This, together with abundant wood resources in the region, will allow the U.S. pellet industry to see sustainable growth to serve all of these markets and more. The next decade will be an exciting one for the industry, and we are looking forward to what’s next.