EECA has published a summary of audits in the New Zealand sawmill industry. These audits assess energy use by the sawmilling industry and identify potential for energy savings.

The major operations consuming electricity on a sawmill site are debarking, sawing, kiln-drying, treating and planning. However each site varies as to which operations are occurring.

Burning wood waste is the major source of energy used at the sawmills, primarily in kiln drying. Bioenergy comprises 57% of the total energy used and 4% of the total energy costs.

Fossil fuels such as LPG, coal, diesel and recycled fuel oil comprise 32% of energy use and 33.4% of energy costs. These fuels are typically used for kilns drying and for drying wood waste.

Electricity comprises 11% of energy use but 62.5%of energy costs.

Full report [PDF 489kb].

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