In the Halifax area, there is a significant shortage of wood pellets available this year to fuel residential pellet stoves.

Wood pellet stoves have been selling in great numbers in the last couple of years as oil prices soared.

In Nova Scotia, pellets are produced by the Shaw Group who is shipping pellets 5 days a week to Halifax, but the supply is not currently filling the demand. Another supplier in Quebec suffered a fire in their plant and are not producing pellets right now.

Compounding the supply shortage problem are the people who are purchasing and are stockpiling up to 3 years of pellets to prevent their own shortage. Hoarding pellets is never a good idea because they are useless if they crumble or get wet.

Personally, we went through last winter with a pellet stove that came with the house we purchased. We had it removed this year and replaced with a traditional wood burning stove. We aren't yet missing hauling very heavy bags of pellets, carefully storing the bags so the pellets didn't crumble or absorb moisture, having a technician in twice last winter to tweak the stove settings, and regularly covering ourselves with soot as we took the stove apart for cleaning. There are definitely some advantages to pellet stoves, but for us, the cons won out.

How is the supply for wood pellets in your part of the country?

Links:
‘It’s impossible to buy them’ Wood pellet supply running dry throughout HRM (Chronicle Herald)
Demand for cheaper heat source exceeds wood pellet supply (CBC)