Domestic market gains in popularity among wood pellet manufacturers - Public companies recognize importance of biomass heating

Due to an increased demand for wood pellets, an alternative biomass fuel produced by grinding various kinds of wooden waste, the company Gota Pellets plans to boost the capacity for producing this fuel at its plant in Bajina Basta.

This company`s production plant, which was opened last year, currently produces 10,000 tonnes of pellets. Once the planned investment of EUR 1 million is implemented, the plant`s production capacity will be doubled.

As Gota Pellets CEO Mladen Barcot explains to eKapija, a major portion of production is exported to Italy and Greece, but he also says that the domestic market is in full market swing.

- Domestic market is becoming more and more attractive to wood pellet manufacturers. We currently supply wood pellets to two heating plants in Belgrade, one in Barajevo and the other in Senjak, and preparations are underway in association with the funds engaged in the affirmation of this fuel for attracting few more heating plants in Serbia to move to this form of heating.

People at this company explain that from the aspect of prices, energy value and the level of utilization, as well as the costs of useful energy, heating with wood pellets is cheaper than heating with most other fuels - more than two times cheaper than heating with electricity and heating oil, about 40 percent cheaper than heating with earth gas, and about 30 percent cheaper than heating with stone coal.

The company Beogradske Elektrane was the first in Serbia to start using biomass for heating in 2007. Judging from its previous experience, the company is extremely satisfied with the effects. According to the information available on its website, pellets and briquettes account for 0.2 percent (2,000 tonnes) and 0.3 percent (2,500 tonnes) of the average annual fuel consumption, respectively.

- Both coal and biomass have the same energy value, while the advantages of pellets and briquettes lie in a better utilization of energy and a reduced emission of harmful gases - say people at Beogradske Elektrane.

Unofficially, people at this Belgrade-based company plan to use biomass wherever possible. As they say, the smallest investments are required by heating plants that use coal as a fuel.

Although most heating plants in Serbia announced that the prices of heating would be higher next winter due to an increase in fuel prices and large debts from the previous heating season, some municipalities have decided to reduce certain costs by utilizing the positive effects of biomass heating.

The municipal management in Prijepolje has recently launched the project Green Economy - Path to Energy Efficiency, which focuses on the installation of boilers using pellet as a fuel.

This is a pilot program that is being implemented in institutions and organizations founded by the Municipal Assembly of Prijepolje, so that pellets will be used as of next season to heat the building of the Municipal Administration, Museum, Secondary Technical School, Secondary School of Economics and the kindergarten Srce in Brodarevo.

The total value of the reconstruction of boiler rooms in these facilities amounts to about EUR 110,000, and the works carried out by Kraljevo-based Radijator will be completed within the next few days. The officials of this municipality believe that the fact that there are 8 manufacturers of pellets in Serbia is extremely important for the sustainability of this project.

The absence of difficulties in the supply of fuels on the local level was also an important precondition for donors, the EU and the Swiss government, to decide to pursue this project under the Progres program and, thus, give their support to the local government in its efforts to start heating public institutions in an efficient, cost-effective and environment-friendly way.

I.B.