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Forest Bioenergy: How Quebec’s Forests Can Support Economic Development and the Energy Transition
Thursday, November 19, 2026
Quebec’s forests have always been an important driver of economic and social development. Carefully addressing the current upheaval in the Québec forestry sector will make it possible to maintain or even increase the associated environmental, social, and economic benefits. In this context, forest bioenergy promises to be a key tool for revitalizing the the forest products industry. It can diversify the energy mix and increase the resilience of the energy ecosystem throughout Québec.
To optimize the use of forest biomass resources available at the regional level, various options must be considered for overcoming barriers to connecting all parts of the value chain.
This session will discuss challenges and solutions associated with harvesting and processing forest biomass, processing methods designed to meet the energy and decarbonization needs of ecosystem stakeholders, and the relative competitiveness of the different forms of forest bioenergy currently being developed.
9:10 a.m.
Forest Biomass Supply: Challenges, Opportunities, and Outlook to 2035
Conference details
Forest bioenergy offers potential for Québec to support the energy transition, diversify markets for the forest sector, and strengthen its resilience. This potential is important in a challenging economic environment marked by the softwood lumber trade dispute, weakness in pulp and paper markets, and changing global markets. Biomass could create new outlets for forest harvesting and wood-processing residues, as well as for underutilized tree species and lower-quality wood.
Despite the abundance of the resource and the range of conversion pathways, deploying forest bioenergy projects remains challenging. A main barrier is the high cost of delivering biomass to processing facilities or conversion sites. This cost results from the interaction of several factors, including low energy density, resource dispersion and variability, harvesting conditions, preprocessing requirements, transportation distances, seasonal operations, quality specifications, and equipment utilization rates.
This presentation will provide a structured analysis of these factors to explain where costs arise and why they vary from one supply chain to another. It will also examine opportunities to improve competitiveness, including better integration with existing forest operations, volume consolidation, shared use of equipment and infrastructure, fewer material-handling stages, and improved logistics planning.
Finally, the presentation will consider the conditions required for forest bioenergy to contribute sustainably, by 2035, to industrial diversification, regional development, and the decarbonization of Québec. The central question is therefore not simply how much biomass is theoretically available, but rather which biomass can be mobilized, at what cost, under what conditions, and for which value chains.
