Direct woodfuels have a total stock of about 832 million tonnes. Timber logging utilise 2.0 – 2.7 million m3 per annum, generating 1.0-1.4 million m3 of logging residues on an annual basis. These residues include slabs, edgings, off cuttings, sawdust, peeler cores and residues from plywood manufacturing. Sawmill and ply-mill residues are most concentrated in the Kumasi area and large-scale furniture mills are in Accra, with several smaller-scale furniture producers distributed throughout the country.
There is also potential of wood residues from construction of roads and skidding trails in the forest for the haulage of harvested timber, wood residues from forest clearings for agriculture and wood from surface mining sites. In addition to logging there are several other potential reserves of biomass. Total land area under tree plantation is estimated at 75,000 ha.
Trees of poor form, which will not be suitable for commercial sale, that are removed from these plantations together with the residues from the harvesting of lumber grade trees could also be reckoned as potential sources of energy. Diseased coconut trees as well as, over-matured coconut and oil palm trees could be very good fuel sources for the production of energy. Analysis of the physical characteristics of trees reveals that woodfuel from the savannah zone have higher calorific values than those in the closed high forest zone of central Ghana. Thus, the trees from the savannah zone which are