Can the U.S. learn from Denmark?

Denmark importing U.S. wood pellets for multi-fuel CHP plant–what does Denmark know that the U.S. doesn’t?
Blog from IDEA:
Timber News, published by RISI (Resource Information Systems Inc.) reports that DONG Energy, one of the largest energy companies in Northern Europe, will begin augmenting the fuel supply for its newly expanded 790 MW combined heat and power (CHP) plant in Hvidovre, Denmark, with wood pellets imported from the southeast US. The facility will begin operation during Oct., 2014.

The DKK 100 million (US$18 million) investment will increase the production of wood-based power from the current 400 MW to 500 MW, using 750,000 tonnes of wood pellets each year. The company is already importing wood pellets from the Baltic countries, Russia, Germany, and Portugal by ship, which are then transported from the Port of Copenhagen to the storage facilities at the station. DONG Energy is considering significantly increasing imports of wood pellets from the US, depending on the decision to convert two other plants located in Kolding and Aarhus to biomass, a company representative told RISI’s Wood Biomass Market Report.

Simultaneous heat and electricity generation
The multi-fuel Avedøre Power Station on the outskirts of Copenhagen ranks among the best in the world. The total capacity of the power station’s two units are approximately 810 MW electricity and 915 MJ/s heat. Avedøre Power Station supplies 200,000 households with heat and generates about 30 % of the electricity consumption on Zealand, equivalent to the annual electricity consumption of around 1.3 million households. By simultaneously generating heat and power the power station reaches record-high fuel efficiencies of up to 94 %. The higher the fuel efficiency, the less fuel is needed per kWh generated, and the less CO2 is emitted per kWh.

The two units on Avedøre Power Station
Avedøre Power Station consists of two power station units: Avedøre 1 (to the left in photo above) and Avedøre 2. Avedøre 1, built in 1990, primarily uses coal as fuel and, by using combined heat and power generation, is capable of utilizing more than 90 % of the fuel’s energy content. Avedøre 2, built in 2001, is a multi-fuel system that can consume natural gas, oil, coal, straw and wood pellets and can reach fuel efficiencies of up to 94 %. The unit consists of a steam turbine system, a gas turbine system and a biomass boiler system.

Source: IDEA.org