Article of total German wood demand

External factors show strong effects on German households’ wood use. We applied a left censored Tobit model to quantify effects of such factors on household-level wood energy consumption in years 2005, 2010 and 2014. Explanatory variables distinguished between heating technology, dwelling characteristics and alternative energies; woody biomass accessibility and weather; as well as households’ socio demographic characteristics.

Research results suggest that central heaters facilitate greater wood energy consumption in an average German household. Households’ wood energy consumption showed also strong response to changes in temperature and competing energy prices. Findings are of particular interest given that both variables exhibit high variation over time. Better accessibility to wood resources were associated with higher wood energy consumption. Results suggest that improvements in infrastructure of wood energy markets e.g. in urban areas might increase residential wood energy demand in areas that tend to consume least wood energy.

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• Glasenapp S, Aguilar FX, Weimar H, Mantau U (2019) Assessment of residential wood energy consumption using German household-level data. Biomass Bioenergy 126:117-129, DOI:10.1016/j.biombioe.2019.04.020