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Speaker 1: The energy crisis. We've been talking about it all week.

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Speaker 1: We've got gaps to fill when the sun don't shine,

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Speaker 1: when the wind don't blow, when the rain don't fall.

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Speaker 1: And a lot of people are saying, you know, gas LNG.

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Speaker 1: What about bio energy? Could slash the stuff that comes

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Speaker 1: from the forestry. One of our guests mentioned this yesterday.

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Speaker 1: We wanted to take a closer look at it. Solid

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Speaker 1: biofuels are burned to create heat and electricity generation as

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Speaker 1: a cheaper alternative to gas. Companies like Fonterra are actually

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Speaker 1: already using this technology. So how could we do it

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Speaker 1: here and what would it cost? Rob Mallinson is the

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Speaker 1: head of Solid bio Energy Group, is with me this morning.

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Speaker 1: Hey Rob, good thank you. Tell me. The one thing

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Speaker 1: I hear about SLASH in particular is by the time

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Speaker 1: you go up into the what wops and find the

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Speaker 1: slash and then manually get it out and then put

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Speaker 1: it in a truck and take it to some facility

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Speaker 1: to have it, it's very time consuming. What do you think?

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Speaker 1: What do you say to that?

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Speaker 2: Certainly correct? Particularly I get in the Disbone region because

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Speaker 2: it's so remote, but there's plenty of areas already recovering

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Speaker 2: it around, certainly, for instance in the Nelson region Ndrebris.

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Speaker 2: So it's of course, it's of course, that's right, You're right,

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Speaker 2: it's hard to get it out of some places. I

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Speaker 2: want to draw the attention to the twenty million tons

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Speaker 2: of logs that we export annually, twenty million tons a year,

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Speaker 2: the forestings to producer and ships. Eighty to ninety percent

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Speaker 2: of that goes to China, pretty low value. And we're

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Speaker 2: talking about an energy shortage, a shortage of fuel, and

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Speaker 2: we've got one hundred and fifty petter duels of logs

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Speaker 2: that were exporting every year. That's equivalent to Maui at

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Speaker 2: its peak, and it's a renewable and it's half the

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Speaker 2: coast of Lerg. So we need it's to be a

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Speaker 2: part of the solution. I'm not saying it's the silver bullet,

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Speaker 2: but there's a huge potential part of the solution, particularly

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Speaker 2: for North Island industry who's taking a massive hit at

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Speaker 2: the moment and now they're sitting around waiting for an

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Speaker 2: LERG terminal that may or may not happen. You know what,

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Speaker 2: prime it'll be over thirty dollars.

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Speaker 1: A GIGGATRP, so just burn the lungs, don't sell them

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Speaker 1: to China.

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Speaker 2: Potentially that's an option. Yeah, we could use the residue first,

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Speaker 2: of course, but then we've got one hundred and fifty

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Speaker 2: peda duels of logs. So for one hundred and fifty

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Speaker 2: million giga jewels, the North Island industry uses twenty five

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Speaker 2: million giga jels to put into contact. So we just

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Speaker 2: need twenty percent of the export logs be low. It's

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Speaker 2: value export logs which are probably going to drop off

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Speaker 2: if anyone in terms of job the demand from China

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Speaker 2: with their declining population and construction industry. So we need

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Speaker 2: to be finding a home for this and we need

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Speaker 2: a policy that encourages that home.

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Speaker 1: We are we then, you know again kneecapping one industry

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Speaker 1: to try and prop up our energy sector, aren't we?

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Speaker 1: I mean, which is what is happening right now with

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Speaker 1: mythnics etc. But are we not just doing more of

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Speaker 1: the same as opposed to actually, you know, adding to

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Speaker 1: the productive capacity of the country.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, if we put in an LNG terminal, if those

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Speaker 2: twenty five million giga duels of North Filand industry demand

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Speaker 2: is met through LNG eight hundred million dollars a year

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Speaker 2: roughly we'll go offshore versus paying four hundred million dollars

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Speaker 2: to the log industry, to the forest industry keep it

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Speaker 2: on shore. It makes no sense to be putting an

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Speaker 2: l It makes no sense to be locking in a

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Speaker 2: fossil fuel when we've got one hundred and fifty petted

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Speaker 2: duals of renewal energy available locally every year. It's not

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Speaker 2: a declining resource. It's a sustainable resource. And all our

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Speaker 2: North onlond industry is under pressure from their cluster clients

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Speaker 2: will be decarbonized. But this can take all those boxes.

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Speaker 1: Rob you're the head of the Solid bio Energy Group.

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Speaker 1: What is that.

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Speaker 2: It's a subset of the bio Energy Association of New Zealands.

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Speaker 2: So I just represent a bunch of people who who

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Speaker 2: want to see this this progress. People and industry. We're

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Speaker 2: a well established industry. All their sawmills and poultenoff they

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Speaker 2: all use this technology. It's just good or combustion of

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Speaker 2: biomass in wood boilers to make heat or steam. So

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Speaker 2: it's perfectly suited to meeting those heat requirements of North

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Speaker 2: Island industry and South Island industry and we've already adopted

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Speaker 2: about five PETTA duals in the last few years according

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Speaker 2: to ECO, the government authority. So it's happening. We just

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Speaker 2: need to hamp faster. The industry is very capable. There's

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Speaker 2: twenty different boiler suppliers available in New Zealand or boiler

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Speaker 2: tech types. A mature industry that's spential to grow even further.

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Speaker 1: All right, Well, I would love to hear from people

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Speaker 1: out there who are in this industry whether it's a

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Speaker 1: viable alternative that we should be looking at more. Rob,

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Speaker 1: thank you very much for your time. That's Rob Mallinson,

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Speaker 1: here's the head of these solid bio energy groups. Says

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Speaker 1: we're exporting a whole bunch of logs to China and

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Speaker 1: we would only need to use twenty five percent of

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Speaker 1: our export logs to try and fill the energy gaps

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Speaker 1: that we've got. New Zone for more from News Talks

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