Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
The main reason for this difference is the increase in imports of wood pellets
from Canada and the USA. By looking at the statistics of the past two decades,
the decline of energy production from solid biomass is particularly unusual given
that the biomass in the EU has grown steadily since 1990, except for a slight de-
cline in 1999. Indeed, it is more than doubled in the period 1990-2010 (39.5 Mtoe
produced in 1990). As far as the production of heat in the processing, which cor-
responds to sales of district heating networks, there is a decrease of 7.5 % in 2011
for a production of 7 Mtoe. Much of this heat, 60.8 % in 2011, has been produced
by cogeneration plants (plants that produce both heat and electricity). The final en-
ergy consumption is 58 Mtoe in 2011, representing a decrease of 3.1 % compared
to 2010. The total heat consumption is 64.9 Mtoe in 2011, down from 2.4 Mtoe
compared to 2010. The production of electricity from solid biomass has fared bet-
ter in the EU since the electric heating is less common than other types; production
amounts to 72.8 TWh in 2011, which represents an increase of 2.6 % compared
to 2010. Sweden has had a decline particularly strong energy production from
solid biomass: production from solid biomass is decreased by more than 1.7 Mtoe,
reaching 8.2 Mtoe. In Sweden, biomass energy is used mainly by forest industry,
which produces both heat for the residential sector, and electricity for their own
consumption. In Finland, the decline in consumption has been less significant and
the country has registered a primary energy production from solid biomass in 2011
that amounts to 7476 Mtoe. In Germany, the decline in the consumption of solid
biomass can be attributed to the lower heating needs of families. Among the vari-
ous biomass, wood pellets have been the one that have suffered less. According to
the German Association of Energy and Forestry (DEPV), the pellet production has
increased by 6 % in 2011 (plus 110,000 t), amounting to 1.86 million t. Germany
stands as the first EU country to primary energy production from solid biomass,
amounting to 11,690 Mtoe in 2011. The UK is one of the few EU countries to
have increased the consumption of solid biomass (the country imports more than
a quarter of its consumption). The only beneficiary of this increase, according to
the Department of Energy and Climate Change, has been producing electricity,
which has risen to 6.1 TWh, increasing by 16.9 % between 2010 and 2011. The
British government has also implemented a system of self-certification for coal
plants that are entirely converted into biomass power plants, or plants that pro-
duce co-combustion on a large scale for 2013-2017 period. The primary energy
production from solid biomass in the UK amounts to 1756 Mtoe in 2011. As in
Germany, in France the decrease of energy production from solid biomass (from
10.6 Mtoe in 2010 to 9.2 Mtoe in 2011) is due to the fall in household consump-
tion. In Poland, the sharp increase in the consumption of solid biomass derives in
large part by the rapid development of the co-combustion of biomass for the pro-
duction of electricity. The electric power has consumed 1 million t of biomass in
most in 2011 of which 90 % is used in 51 plants operating in co-firing. The volume
of biomass measured in plants co-firing is increased by three times between 2006
and 2011 (from 1.7 to 5.2 million t), and a significant part of this biomass was
imported. However, the Polish government has decided to reduce support for the
biomass sector because this rapid development is due also to the strong economic
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