Wood Energy
Activity (project) title: Modern and sustainable heat and power from woody biomass in South-Eastern Europe
Countries: Countries in the western Balkans
Duration: 24 Months
Estimated Budget: Euro450,000
Executing Agency: UNECE/FAO Timber Section, Geneva
Starting Date: September 2008
Objective: The goal of the project is to demonstrate the feasibility of converting municipal heat and power systems in the western Balkans to woody biomass from local renewable sources by raising awareness at the policy level and by preparing detailed project proposals for one or two municipalities in each of the participating countries.
Brief Description: The western Balkans have a valuable and expanding forest resource, which could provide significant volumes of renewable energy. However, most citizens, even in rural areas, are dependent on imported fossil fuels. One solution is to convert district heat and energy systems of municipalities in forested areas to modern wood burning. When used in an energy and material efficient way, using a modern burning facility, drawing on wood from sustainably managed forests, wood energy is considered as almost climate neutral. In addition to the energy efficiency, increased energy security and lower fuel costs, especially when the municipality is also the forest owner, these projects could generate additional income from credits for avoided CO2 emissions and create additional local employment. Woody biomass is one of the most important renewable energy sources in the UNECE region and may see strong growth in coming years. However, wood energy is often negatively perceived as the fuel of the poor because of its labour intensity, often old-fashioned burning facilities and the connected indoor and outdoor air pollution by small particles emissions. Modern burning facilities can effectively convert woody biomass to energy whilst minimizing particle emissions. Many cities and municipalities already possess central heating networks requiring refurbishment, which could be converted relatively cheaply to woody biomass. Furthermore, the municipalities often own (or have guaranteed access to) abundant local wood resources.
Next Steps
(a) Set up a network of interested municipalities in the countries of the region;
(b) Organize reconnaissance expert missions to the pilot areas to assess the market for woody energy, to collect positive examples for wood energy projects implementation and to prepare regional feasibility reports including business case relevant data;
(c) Organize a sub-regional workshop for policy-makers representing energy and forestry areas from target countries to raise awareness and to showcase examples where heat and power providers successfully switched to woody biomass;
(d) Prepare project proposals to convert municipalities (one or two per participating country) from heat and power systems based on fossil fuels to systems based on sustainable woody biomass;
(e) Organize a final conference to present pilot project proposals and lessons learned to the policy-makers and potential investors.
Following the proposal of the UNECE/FAO Timber Section, the nineteenth session of the Steering Committee of the EE21 Project held in May 2008 "requested the secretariat, in cooperation with the UNECE/FAO Timber Section, to develop a subregional project of Energy Efficiency 21 addressing wood energy and other bio-fuels with a geographic focus on the western Balkans" (ECE/ENERGY/WP.4/2008/3, para. 24 (i)).
The Timber Section sees strong synergies in bundling the common efforts in close cooperation between the different sectors (energy, forestry, investment) and levels (international, national, communal/local). It would involve partners from both energy and forest agencies to develop and implement this project. Cooperating partners of the EE21 Project networks are requested to consider funding of this project.
