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THE ELVA PROJECT (2005 - 2007)
ELVA - ESTABLISHING LOCAL VALUE CHAINS FOR RES HEAT IN LOCAL COMMUNITIESWhile the BIOHEAT I and BIOHEAT II projects have successfully tried to disseminate information and know how on heating large buildings with biomass, ELVA extends these efforts towards the next level of larger biomass heating projects: microgrids connecting a few close by buildings and district heating systems in rural villages and towns. Successful projects in this field are very often characterised by effective public-business-citizen-partnerships and the establishment of local value chains based on these partnerships. Thus they are more demanding from the point of view of project development and need both educated local policy makers setting up the necessary partnerships and skilled energy advisors developing the technical parts of such systems. As indicated by the uneven dissemination of this technology, deployment of biomass district heating systems has been very dependent on the local frame conditions. This project aims to contribute to the development of local value chains for RES heat by transferring the know-how of a country with extensive experiences in this field (Austria) to countries with less experience (Norway, Ireland, England, Scotland, Portugal, Greece, and Slovenia). Although the heat requirements in countries like Greece and Portugal are less significant than what is the case in more northern countries, the market mechanisms will be similar. Countries with more cooling requirements may therefore focus more on the cooling aspects on local level value chains. In the target countries there is an apparent lack of appropriate tools and know-how for developing the whole value chain at local level, which requires in-depth theoretical knowledge and practical experience with economics and local politics. This project aims to study existing, successful experiences, design an optimised market model, and to use the model in concrete feasibility studies in pilot markets with the aim of a public-business-citizen partnership in the partner countries. Energy advisors play a key role in developing the technical side of projects. This target group will be trained directly by Austrian experts. In order to address local policy makers effectively, contacts will be established with organisations that are active in informing and training this target group such as associations of towns or educational organisations of political parties. A “Train the trainers” approach will be the means to reach a wide potential audience effectively. Experiences in other fields of RES show that frame conditions have a decisive impact on market development. Thus a focus of this project will also be to look into beneficial frame conditions both at the national and at the European level. RES Heat markets are by nature driven by local factors, and it has been difficult to argue that a single European market can be created for heat. In addition to the above mentioned aims, the ELVA project will investigate the existing legislation applicable to RES heat in the EU Members and eventually identify possible legal framework conditions upon which further legislative work could be based. More specifically, it will assess in what way these local factors would be affected by such a legislation and to what extent it would contribute to a stronger push for RES Heat market development at local level. The ELVA vision is to help making RES heating grids a commonly used technology throughout Europe by effective know-how transfer and by contributing to the development of appropriate decision making tools as well as national and EU-wide framework conditions. The ELVA project is supported by the "Intelligent Energy - Europe" (EIE) programme of the European Union. PROJECT PARTNERS - ELVA (01/01/2005 - 30/06/2007)
THE BIOHEAT PROJECT (2001 - 2005)BIOHEAT - AN EUROPEAN EFFORT TO STIMULATE THE USE OF BIOMASS FOR HEATING LARGE BUILDINGSMajor technological breakthroughs in the last decade have made the use of wood fuels as pellets (small compressed pieces of sawdust) or woodchips a viable option for supplying renewable energy for heating. State of the art automatic wood boilers can supply heat at the same degree of comfort and reliability as oil or gas heating systems. They cause very low emissions and do not contribute to the greenhouse effect. Wood that could be used as fuel is available throughout Europe in abundance. For this reason the European Commission is funding the BIOHEAT projects. BIOHEAT I running from 2000 till 2002 is followed by BIOHEAT II running from January 2003 till the end of 2004 within the ALTENER program. The total budget of the BIOHEAT projects is 1,8 Mio €. 17 countries including member states and accession countries participate in the project. BIOHEAT is dedicated to stimulate the use of modern automatic wood boilers for heating large buildings such as schools, town halls, hospitals, retirement homes or residential blocks. Why large buildings? The use of wood fuels is particularly economic in this sector. Modern wood boilers are more expensive than oil or gas boilers but wood fuels are significantly cheaper. If heat demand is relatively high – as in large buildings – heating with wood fuels can be considerably cheaper than heating with oil in most European countries. If it is cheaper – why is it not more commonly used ? The use of biomass for heating today is in the same situation as wind energy 10 years ago. Efficient technology is available and used in a few selected countries but still not commonly known and accepted as viable option. Thus BIOHEAT makes a major effort to disseminate knowledge about the option of using wood fuels to relevant target groups as municipalities, provincial governments, housing associations, consultants, architects etc. Brochures are produced in 14 different languages and a website offering practical information has been established. Besides disseminating basic information BIOHEAT II will aim at involving regional energy agencies and train them to develop wood heated projects. It will implement measures to ensure that projects are of high quality as mistakes are frequent when new technologies are used by inexperienced professionals. This will include an international training course for planners and detailed technical manuals explaining the do´s and don´ts of heating large buildings with wood fuels. The national participants will also have the flexibility to address particular national barriers for wood heating that have been identified during the analysis phase at the beginning of the project. During this phase 25 interviews are conducted with representatives of all relevant target groups, commercial actors and professional organisations to understand the national barriers for wood heating and to establish cooperation for the dissemination of information. Finally, the national project managers will offer startup support for pilot projects including a telephone hotline and financial support for feasibility studies. The BIOHEAT project is supported by the ALTENER programme of the European Union. PROJECT PARTNERS - BIOHEAT I (2001 - 2002)
PROJECT PARTNERS - BIOHEAT II (2003 - 2004)
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