Background of USA Wood Pellet Plants
Pellet fuel is a kind of renewables which has multiple applications. It can be used as a fuel for the boilers to heat houses and business buildings, and also, in some European countries, such as the UK, Belgium and Netherlands, pellets are used to generate utility-scale electricity. The market is always generated by the demands, as the demand for wood pellets is increasing, the global pellets market is developing fast, also the numbers of pellet plants in USA is growing rapidly, too. This article is trying to give you some general ideas about American wood pellet plants.
Since 2012, the pellet plants in USA received a fast development period as it is the first time that the export quantity of wood pellets in USA has overcome the quantity of Canadian pellets in 2012. Since then, America is becoming the largest pellet exporter in the world. During 2012-2014, the official statistics shows that the export quantity of pellets in America has increased fast. In 2012, America has exported 1.6 million tons of wood pellets. The total export volume of pellets jumps to 3.2 million tons in 2013. In 2014, the export volume is increased to 4.4 million tons and makes more than $500 million.
Oversea Market for Pellet Plants in USA
90% of American wood pellet has been exported to European countries. The largest US wood pellets importer in Europe is Great Britain. The main application of pellets in UK is to generate electricity, nearly three quarters of the American pellets exported to the UK is used for electricity generation. According to the 2020 climate and energy plan presented by the European Commission, which is concentrated on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing the renewables of the total energy consumption, by the year of 2020, the renewables must reach 15% of the total energy demand. It indicates a large increasing potential of exporting American pellets since the supply chain of US-EU has been already established.
The main EU importers for American pellets
TOP 5 States in America for Wood Pellet Plants
So far, there are 182 registered pellet plants which are widespread in 41 states in USA. There is a ranking list of the top 5 states in America that hold the largest number of wood pellet plants.
Top 5 states in America for pellet plants
| Ranking | State | Amount | Feedstock |
| No.1 | Georgia ( GA ) | 13 | Harwood
Softwood Sawmill Residues Peanut hulls Yellow Pine Switch grass others |
| No.2 | Pennsylvania ( PA ) | 12 | |
| No.3 | Oregon ( OR ) | 11 | |
| No.4 | Wisconsin ( WI ) | 10 | |
|
No.5
|
Michigan ( MI ) | 9 | |
| New York ( NY ) | 9 | ||
| Virginia ( VA ) | 9 | ||
| Total amount | 73 (40% of all the pellet plants in America) | ||
The most significant feature you can find out is that these states are near the sea or river. It is because the west and east coast states have the most developed timber industry, and also it’s an effective way to save the domestic transportation cost of the pellets. The transportation cost is one of the main influencers for wood pellets. In 2013, only the shipping cost is about a quarter of the delivered price of the pellets from USA to EU. So, in order to maintain a pricing advantage for American wood pellet exporters, the amount of pellet plants in east coast states is growing rapidly. As the EU members have been assigned national renewable energy targets, the demand for pellets is expected to double by 2020, about 24 million tons. Therefore, a blooming period for American wood pellet plants is coming.