North America’s Largest Woodworking Event | Tuesday–Friday | August 25–28, 2026

Industry & Trends

The Latest Use for Southern Pine: Power Sources

There could be a new use for timber in the American South and it’s coming from an unexpected source.

Long considered a prime building material, UK-based Drax Group is looking to use pine to fuel wood-fired power plants for tech users. According to a Wall Street Journal report, the company is looking for locations to build electricity generators fueled by burning wood chips.

“The plan calls for constructing wood-fired power plants in parts of the US South where pulp and paper mills have closed and left timber growers without buyers for those trees unfit” for other uses, the WSJ said. “The plants’ exhaust will be piped underground instead of out of smokestacks, which generates lucrative carbon credits for which Drax is already lining up buyers.”

Technology companies in need of power for AI data centers are considered the prime users for this new supply. Drax already burns pellets of compressed sawdust in a converted coal-fueled power plant in its home country, which produces about 5 percent of the UK’s electricity, the Journal said. “Drax has built pellet mills across the southeastern US and in western Canada to feed that plant as well as other wood-burning plants around the world.”

“The whole idea is that 24/7 renewable power is going to become increasingly in demand as data centers grow, as AI grows,” Drax chief executive Will Gardiner told the WSJ. “There’s a huge need for that commodity.”

Millions of acres of what was once a primeval forest of longleaf pine stretching from southern Virginia to northern Florida and west into Texas and Oklahoma have been replanted with rows of fast-growing loblolly pine, the WSJ said. But the volume of wood that American pulp and paper mills have the capacity to process is down more than 20 percent since 2011, the Journal said, citing commodity data firm Fastmarkets.

Image: Drax Group

BACK TO NEWS

More Industry & Trend News

  • Home Maintenance Cost Increases Driven by Bad Weather

    February 12, 2025

  • Boxable Latest to Push for Manufactured Housing

    February 12, 2025

  • Paulsen to Take Over as Floor & Décor New President

    February 12, 2025

Show Dates & Location

International Woodworking Fair
Tuesday–Friday
August 25–28, 2026

Georgia World Congress Center
285 Andrew Young International Blvd
Atlanta, GA 30313

Get Industry News & IWF Updates

Subscribe to IWF Network News.

Subscribe Now

Terms & Privacy Policy

© 2020 International Woodworking Fair, LLC Terms of Use & Privacy Policy

3520 Piedmont Rd NE #350, Atlanta GA 30305 | (404) 693-8333

 

Have questions about IWF? Check out our new AI chatbot and get info fast!

To get started, set your chat preference. Then click on the chat bar that appears in the lower right corner. Are you an Attendee or an Exhibitor?

Attendee Exhibitor

No Thanks

IWF 2024 Add to Calendar

Sync IWF 2024 with your favorite calendar program.

Notification Message

loading … please wait

Have Questions?

First let’s set your chat preference. Then, just click on the chat bar that appears. Are you an Attendee or an Exhibitor?

Attendee Exhibitor