Investment opportunities

Employment

Investment in bioenergy applications can provide opportunities for new employment. Collecting and processing biomass into fuel and delivering it to a heat plant creates additional employment. In time we will also move to grow energy crops in order to meet wood fuel demand and that will create additional forestry jobs.

Cleantech Investment Opportunities

Bioenergy has significant clean tech investment opportunities and bioenergy already plays a foundational role in New Zealand’s energy landscape, contributing over 9% of the country’s energy supply. Bioenergy Association analysis indicates that up to 27% of New Zealand's energy could come from biomass and organic waste resources.

Significant untapped potential exists, thanks to our abundant natural resources and reliable feedstock from extensive forestry and agricultural assets.

The New Zealand Trade and Enterprise department has an Invest New Zealand programme to identify and support potential investors. An overview of cleantch opportunities shows that bioenergy provides a significant number of opportunities. View the prospectus and a pipeline of specific opportunities, including those from bioenergy  which they are currently supporting.

Regional Economic Sustainability

Each region across New Zealand has extensive forestry and woodlot opportunities from which biomass can be derived and processed into wood fuel. In each region there is potential for wood residues from forest harvesting and wood processing to meet regional demand.

Forestry is integrated into agriculture and horticulture so that the soils can be sustainably managed for future hundreds of years. Integrating forestry into agriculture through shelterbelts, riparian planting, and protection from erosion increases the business resilience of farmers and optimises production from the soils. In areas where there is steep slopes long rotation species such as Pinus Radiata are an ideal crop, while short rotation species are better suited for terrain that is easier for harvesting. Some species such as miscanthus can be harvested annually.

Sustainability of rural communities is achieved when forestry and agriculture are working together creating employmment and stable communities with schools and shops.