bioenergy within the nreaps - european commission · 2014-08-11 · bap driver project took place...

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AEBIOM workshop within the Sustainable Energy Week 2010

25 March 2010, Minutes

Bioenergy within the nREAPs

AEBIOM conference on biomass part of National Renewable Energy Action Plans (nREAP) supported by

BAP Driver project took place on 25

March within the Sustainable Energy

Week in Brussels. The aim of this event

was to help the EU member states to deal

with the biomass part within the

Renewable Energy Action plans to be

prepared and submitted to the European

Commission by the end of June 2010. The

event has attracted over 100 participants -

more than organisers have expected. A

high interest in bioenergy sector shows a growing policy makers’ interest in bioenergy sector.

The speakers covered the topics on European, national policies (best practices) and how to develop different

biomass sectors such as biogas, small scale heat, and biomass supply within the nREAPs. Whilst explaining

the RES directive, Emese Kottasz from the European Commission noted that around half of renewable

energy by 2020 is expected to be met by using biomass sources. Nevertheless, in order to reach this target

the member states have to introduce strong

support schemes, deal with administrative

procedures and spatial planning, building

regulations and codes such as setting up

minimum requirements for RES in buildings,

certification of installers (including biomass

boilers) and especially focus on energy

infrastructure, energy efficiency and measures to

mobilise the biomass sources within their

nREAPs to be published by June 2010.

According to member states plans today,

altogether the EU member states are going to Left to right: Emese Kotasz - a speaker from the European

Commission and the President of AEBIOM – Heinz Kopetz




exceed the 20% RES target by 0,3% by 2020. Ms Kottasz informed that frequently asked questions

regarding nREAPs are available on http://ec.europa.eu/energy/renewables/doc/nreap_z_faq_040110.pdf and

that the European Commission is setting up a biomass working group to help implement the RES directive at

a national level. BAPdriver project and REPAP 2020 also provide a comprehensive assistance on biomass

part within the nREAPs. Later on, whilst focusing on neglected heat sector (the development of heat is

crucial to reach the RES target as 50% of energy is used for heat and potential is underexploited) Alexandra

Lermen from DENA added that within the BAPdriver project the specific papers on the following topics

were available online: bioenergy from waste, cross-country effects, sustainability and cost-effective support

schemes.

At present, the European Commission

decided not to introduce a mandatory

sustainability criteria for solid biomass

as this would have resulted in higher

cost for its’ use (compared to fossil

fuels) and would go against the

objective to mobilise the biomass

resources. Further to that, due to the

existing sustainability rules in

agriculture and forestry and the

particularities of solid biomass use (such

as use of residues and waste) there is

low danger for solid biomass coming

from Europe to be unsustainable. Nevertheless, the sustainability will be monitored and in 2011 the EC is

going to report on the situation and necessity to introduce the mandatory sustainability criteria.

Later on, Mr Jossart from AEBIOM stated that the same quantity of biomass can contribute up to 3 times

more to the RES target (according to the Eurostat counting principles of final energy). For example, 1 toe of

biomass for individual heating will be counted as 1 toe for RES target whilst 1 toe of biomass for electricity

will be counted as 0,3-0,4 toe because electricity and not the calorific value of biomass will be taken into

account when counting the RES target. It can be seen from the following table:

Left to right: the guests from the European Commission - Marc Fleureck,

Andreas Pilzecker and Hilkka Summa

http://ec.europa.eu/energy/renewables/doc/nreap_z_faq_040110.pdf




Mr Jossart was focusing on policy priorities in biomass sector. One of the key priorities is to introduce stable

policy supporting the RES sector, for example, a policy introducing the CO2 tax would provide a long term

support for the biomass sector. When talking about heat, the priority should be to develop residential,

district heating and industrial sectors by providing support via obligation as it is done in Germany, setting

heat prices as in the UK or by providing subsidies for the heat sector. Another important issue is to translate

the EN norms into national biomass fuels standards to make the biomass fuels market reliable and easier to

trade within the EU. In this respect, a new EN standard (14961) for pellets is about to be released by CEN.

In order to develop the electricity from biomass in a sustainable way, there is a need to reward efficiency and

encourage voluntary sustainability schemes. Biofuels sector could be supported by establishing a distribution

obligation based on existing EN standards (B7, E5). Biogas for transport has a big potential and should be

supported by ensuring the biogas injection into the grids.

According to Thomas Mühl, the current use of biomass at small

scale saves more than 70 Mtoe of CO2 and until 2020 there is a

potential to save more than 110 Mtoe of CO2. In order to increase

the use of small scale heating, there is a need to set the minimum

requirememnts of RES in buildings, develop towards the passive

houses and ensure harmonised standards and that the technology in

place has the best performance possible in terms of particle

emissions. One of the main policy tool for this sector is to provide

subsidies to exchange fossil fuels boilers into the biomass ones as the investment cost to do so is the main

obstacle for biomass development at small scale.

Olivier Bertrand from France focussed on the success of quality label in France. The main criteria of this

label are high efficiency of domestic biomass appliances in France (70%) and low pollutants emissions




(0,3% CO). Beside that, the success is ensured using financial

support – if a house switches from fossil fuels into biomass, it

pays 40% less of investment cost and saves 25% of investment

cost if it buys a biomass appliance for the first time.

When talking about the biogas sector, Mr Stambasky concluded

that it is feasible to replace roughly 10% of natural gas

consumption with biomethane in most of the EU Member states

(long term goals), however, there is a need to remove regulatory

barriers (for example, in Italy, a biogas injection (upgraded biogas)

into the grid is not allowed and in Austria only biomethane of

agricultural origin can be taken up by the grids) and deal with

technical restrictions. Biogas can be also used as vehicle fuel but

due to the trade absence and low market volume, the use of it is negligible.

Thomas Siegmund focussed on success factors of the biogas plants in Germany. Germany has set clear and

ambitious targets for 2020 which is 30% of RES electricity, 12% RES in transport (mainly biofuels) and

12% heat by 2020 which has helped to boost the biogas sector in Germany. Furthermore, reliable subsidies

such as:

an obligation for the electricity grid operators to

purchase RES electricity,

an obligation to integrate RES with priority into the

electricity grid and an obligation to pay a minimum

remuneration rates for it for a 20-year period and

bonuses such as clean air, energy crops, manure

bonuses for a proper development of efficient

biogas production and use have been successful

tools for the development of biogas.

Mr Siegmund informed that by 2020 German Biogas Association expects the biogas sector to contribute

to the following:

Left to right: Thomas Siegmund from BBE, Heinz

Kopetz, and Jean-Marc Jossart from AEBIOM are

listening to Mr Stambasky’s speech




~ 31,2 TWh electricity generation with biogas

~ 4.400 MW installed capacity

~ 9.000 biogas plants

~ 6-8 bn EUR cumulated investment costs

Whilst talking about the BIOMASS FUTURES project that also

deals with the biomass part of nREAPs, Ms Calliope Panoutsou

from Imperial College informed that in the EU, biomass and

biowaste account for 66 % of the total RES consumption (98

Mtoe) in 2008), or 5% of the total energy consumption. Solid

biomass (mainly woody biomass) represents the main share (70

Mtoe), while the rest is provided by biogas, transport biofuels and

organic, solid municipal waste. The impact assessment done for

the energy and climate package and the Biomass Action Plan estimates that 165-195 Mtoe of biomass

would be needed for the 20% target (COM (2006)848) while the EEA states that the environmentally-

compatible biomass potential for 2020 is 265 Mtoe coming from indigenous sources including waste and

residues, agriculture and forestry. Furthermore, if the EU 10 % target for 2020 is to be met by domestic

biomass, this would require 17.5 million hectares or 15 % of the total arable land in the EU. Studies carried

out by the DG agriculture concluded that this does not overly stretch either land availability or production

intensity.

Mr Uwe R. Fritsche focused on sustainability issues stating

that the sustainability criteria is extremely important.

According to him, the sustainability issues should be

focussed on:

– direct and indirect land use change (LUC

and ILUC), and its impacts on GHG

emissions, and biodiversity

– impacts on air, water and soil quality

– (global) food security impacts

– social: employment, rural income

The project BAP Driver and biomass Futures are supported by the IEE programme

bioenergy within the nreaps - european commission · 2014-08-11 · bap driver project took place...

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