NYS....We had such a terrible shortage of pellets last year. Now I know why!!
The Europeans have been burning wood pellets for years in their homes and electric producing plants. Pellet burning is a much bigger share of the fuel mix in Europe than it is in North America. Again, much of this is shipped in bulk. There has always been a lot of demand offshore. The change has been the increase in domestic pallet demand here in the US since the price of heating oil has maintained $3.00 or more /gallon.
The major technology change is what is called torrifcation of wood pellets. This makes the wood pellets similar to charcoal. The BTUs/ton increases. The other major benefit is they will not take on moisture like regular wood pellets. This is a major concern when shipping them in bulk.
The European countries have mandated that X amount of their electricity must come from carbon neutral sources. Torrified wood pellets can be added to the mix of a coal fired electric plant to achieve this mandate. Therefore, there are plans to build these plants in Maine and NC just to ship to Europe. There have been many new pellet manufactures and expansion of current domestic producers over the last couple years. Home Depot and Lowes are the biggest sellers here in NH. Ever since they got into pellet sales, many of the independents, like my company got out because you can not make any money on them anymore. So, I do not foresee a pellet shortage this year. I paid $239/ton for 4 tons just about a month ago. With the increase in demand, production has increased to meet that demand. The other good thing that has happened, is there are now standards for pellets ash content, etc. printed on every bag.