Opportunities and Threats for Bioheating in the European Union

Abstract

Bioheating is a key factor for the delayed progress in achieving the 12% renewables target in gross inland energy consumption of the EU by 2010. The key opportunities for biomass in the heat sector are to substitute/complement coal, the small-scale heat generation in rural and mountainous areas, large-scale district heating plants in urban areas, run so far on coal, and industrial self-producers of steam, which generate biomass as by-product from their main activity, co-generation units for power and heat and the heat market in the 10 new member states of the EU. The main threats for the bioheat growth are the lack of promotional incentives at EU level and the competition with: natural gas and eletricity, other energy and non-energy applications of biomass, solar and geothermal heat.