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Is biomass a viable and future-oriented resource? How can we make it environmentally, socially and economically sustainable? The Promobiomasse transnational cooperation project is focussed on proximity, on biomass that is generated and consumed at a local level. This was all explained today at Expobiomasa in a talk given by Ana Áriz, an engineer at Lursarea Nasuvinsa, a partner in the project.
At this trade fair held in Valladolid, Ana, a Forest Engineer, reported on the Integrated Model for the Sustainable Management of the Forest Biomass Market in a short-circuit, within the SUDOE territory. The proposal contains 67 measures directed at promoting and coordinating the different links and agents in the value chain for the forest sector, and biomass in particular, in order to obtain the maximum benefit from this resource in each territory and its use in renewable energy projects at a local level. In the opinion of the experts taking part in the project, the boosting of the local biomass market would bring numerous advantages, given that biomass in a short circuit minimises the risk of fires, generates employment in rural areas, promotes the energy transition and offers sustainable development opportunities.
Promobiomasse partners include the Centre Tecnològic Forestal de Catalunya (CTFC); the public society of the Navarra Government – Navarra de Suelo y Vivienda, SA (NASUVINSA); the Agencia Extremeña de la Energía (AGENEX); the Agência Regional de Energia e Ambiente do Interior (ENERAREA), of Región Norte Portugal; the Communauté de Communes du Plateau de Lannemezan (CCPL), of the French department Hautes-Pyrénées; and the Association des Communes Forestières des Pyrénées Atlantiques (COFOR64) of the Pyrénées Atlantiques, as well as 19 associated entities. The total budget for the project amounts to EUR 1.4 million, of which the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) is providing 1 million.
Expobiomasa
Expobiomasa, which is one of the most important fairs in the sector, is held from the 24th to 26th September at the Feria de Valladolid exhibition centre. This twelfth edition has 540 exhibitors coming from 30 countries. All the latest developments in the sector are on show at the Fair, which is on a 28,000 metre site. The key objective of the exhibition is to promote biomass as an energy source, in the domestic and industrial areas alike, as well as to drive the commercial activity in the sector.
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Today, in Solsona (Lleida – Spain), the Promobiomasse European cooperation project presented a management model directed at facing the challenges of the agricultural and forest biomass energy market.
This week the Forest Science and Technology Centre of Cataluña is hosting the third Promobiomasse Transnational Technical Committee, a project that aims to promote the agriculture and forest biomass energy market in the SUDOE territory (southwestern Europe). This morning, NASUVINSA, the public housing company of the Government of Navarra and project leader, presented the draft for the Integrated Model for the Sustainable Management of the Biomass Market in a Short Circuit in the SUDOE area, which is the result of six months work by the project’s technical committee. During this first workshop, the specialists attending will discuss each section of the proposal – extraction, logistics and marketing, and boosting demand – for its final validation.
63 measures to promote and professionalize the biomass market
The management model submitted comprises ten areas or lines of work, that take the form of 63 measures. These measures have been designed bearing in mind the challenges detected for the agricultural and forest biomass market for local energy use, and are based on the knowledge and experiences of the experts attending the workshops, the good practices studied and the strategic plans and documents already existing in the regions taking part in the project.
The proposal aims to promote the energy utilization of forest and agricultural biomass as an opportunity for local development, while favouring a more sustainable energy model that does not compromise future forest resources and helps combat climate change.
Some of the measures included in the model are directed at cataloguing and improving the knowledge of the forest resources of each region through geographical information systems and new technologies; to achieving the sustainable management of the regional forest resources from an environmental, economic and social point of view; to increasing the social acceptance of forest and biomass development for energy production; and to facilitating access to, and the deployment of forest resources through investment in infrastructures, legislative amendments and technological innovations.
Other measures aim to support the forestry business sector and to combat the fragmentation of ownership through the formation of associations and cooperation between public and private forest ownership. The model focusses on the professionalization of the entire value chain, right from forest and crop management and the introduction of modern farming methods, up to an exacting demand for certified wood chips. It also proposes the creation of a network of biomass operators for the SUDOE region, in order to bring together all the activities to promote forest management and development, including biomass, and offering training and advice for projects for both the supply and demand sides. The model also includes measures to promote model facilities from the public sector and for the Administration to provide incentives for the supply of biomass based energy to private, residential and industrial facilities.
Based on this integrated model, a local action plan will be defined for each region taking part in the project, taking account of the actual situation of the forests, the regulations and the administrative organisation of each territory. The pilot schemes that will serve to test and optimise the proposed model will be defined in these plans.
Good practices in Berguedà and Vallés Occidental
Tomorrow the experts and members taking part in the Solsona meeting are to visit two good practices related to the efficient use of biomass energy. In the morning, they will visit Berga (Barcelona) to see the operation of the project of the Mancomunitat de Municipis Berguedans, an integrated forest management model based on the valorization of the local natural resources and their utilization in 13 municipal biomass boilers and a heating network operating with thermal oil. During the afternoon, they wilL gain first-hand knowledge of the Bosques del Vallès project, promoted by the District Public Service for Forest Biomass for the prevention of fires and the improvement of the condition of the woodlands through the promotion of the forest biomass market. For this purpose, they will visit the logistics centre of the District Public Service for Forest Biomass located in Terrassa (Barcelona) with a production capacity of 6,650 tons of chips a year
Probiomasse Project
The project partners include the Centre Tecnològic Forestal de Catalunya (CTFC); the public society of the Navarra Government – Navarra de Suelo y Vivienda, SA (NASUVINSA); the Agencia Extremeña de la Energía (AGENEX); the Agência Regional de Energia e Ambiente do Interior (ENERAREA), of Región Norte Portugal; the Communauté de Communes du Plateau de Lannemezan (CCPL), of the French department Hautes-Pyrénées; and the Association des Communes Forestières des Pyrénées Atlantiques (COFOR64) of the Pyrénées Atlantiques, as well as 19 associated entities. The total budget for the project amounts to EUR 1.4 million, of which the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) is providing 1 million.
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A technical group from the European Rehabilite and Promobiomasse projects visited a pilot scheme in a residential area in Sarriguren (district of Pamplona) directed at gradually replacing traditional gas networks with systems powered by renewable energy.
Nasuvinsa, the public owned company of the Government of Navarra, has started to take the first effective steps towards gradually replacing the traditional gas boilers in its public housing stock with systems fuelled by forest biomass. This locally-sourced supply is emerging as a renewable energy alternative for the generation of heat at a residential level. This morning, the public housing company of the Government of Navarra showcased its first biomass boiler installed at one of its rental housing properties in Sarriguren, to a group of technical officers from the European Rehabilite and Promobiomasse projects.
The engineering work consisted in installing a new 300 kW wood chip biomass boiler to generate power to supply 51 homes in two blocks of social rental housing located in avenue Avenida Reino de Navarra in Sarriguren. This generator will operate as the main boiler, while the previous two gas boilers will solely be maintained as an occasional support at peak demand times.
Nasuvinsa will use this pilot scheme to try out the operation of biomass boilers in its own residential property. The aim is to subsequently extend the use of installations of this type, particularly to the more than half a thousand rental homes that are starting to be built as part of the Navarra Social Housing scheme, as well as to promote the use of biomass boilers in the private residential sector.
In order to conduct this initial test, Nasuvinsa purchased a batch of wood chips for burning in the boiler. However, in future, the supply of biomass feedstock shall be sourced from the area of forests managed by the Government of Navarra – approximately 10% of the more than 650,000 hectares of woodland in the Autonomous Community of Navarra, through an agreement that the public housing company is finalising with the public company Gestión Ambiental de Navarra (GAN).
The visit made this morning comes within the framework of the second meeting of the technical committee of Prombiomasse, the transnational cooperation project headed by Nasuvinsa. This meeting organised for today and tomorrow, will be attended by more than fifty experts from France, Spain and Portugal. After this initial visit made to Pamplona, the technical officers will then go on the Ultzama Valley tomorrow, specifically to the town of Bera, to learn more about the district heating networks that use forest biomass for heating and for the hot water supply to public buildings.
Navarra: investing in alternative energy sources
This scheme to use forest biomass as an alternative energy source in this residential area, comes within the context of the commitment of Nasuvinsa and its agency for territorial development and sustainability, Lursarea, to shift its housing policy towards more social and sustainable town and country planning. The use of forest biomass as an energy source offers significant advantages, being a sustainably-produced renewable energy that helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the carbon footprint of cities and external dependence. Furthermore, it offers other closer benefits such as the valorization of the extensive forest cover in Navarra, as a local resource, a reduced fire risk and the creation of jobs in rural areas suffering from depopulation.
Another initiative undertaken by Nasuvinsa, immediately prior to the one above, is the forthcoming award of a contract to construct and operate the Txantrea Heat Plant, fuelled by biomass. This infrastructure will have the capacity to cover the district heating of more than 4,000 homes in this district of Pamplona, as well as part of the nearby towns of Burlada and Ansoáin.
This morning, the visit to the pilot scheme in a public housing development in Sarriguren, guided by the technical officer from Nasuvinsa, Maitane Zazu, was preceded by a number of meetings of the Promobiomasse technical groups. These focussed on seeking a solution to problems faced with regard to exploitation, logistics and demand for biomass, such as problems accessing forest areas and storage, inefficient exploitation methods or the lack of knowledge of potential public and private customers about this type of energy.
Plants at Larraintzar and Bera
Following the visit to Sarriguren, today the experts learned more about another good practice relating to a biomass logistics plant located in the town of Navalmoral de la Mata in the province of Caceres. This was all explained in detail by the manager of the company Extremadura Verde during the workshop. Visits to the district heating networks in Ultzama and Bera are scheduled for tomorrow.
In the case of Ultzama, two boilers, one fuelled by wood chips and the other by pellets, located in Larraintzar, serve the district public school, the Community Centre, the Health Centre, the Town Hall, the local Social Service Headquarters and the water for the municipal swimming pool during the season. The system is supplied with local beechwood, approximately 1,200 tons per year. In Bera, four diesel boilers were replaced in 2014 by two biomass boilers which provide hot water and heating to five municipal buildings totalling 8.000 m2: thee schools, one nursery school and a sports centre. This change has led to savings of between 10,000 to 30,000 euros a year, depending on the price of diesel.
Nasuvinsa, through Lursarea, the Navarra agency for territorial development and sustainability, is heading the European Promobiomasse SUDEO project for the development of an integrated model for sustainable forest biomass management in a short-circuit, applicable to mountain areas of southwest Europe. In the Autonomous Community of Navarra, the project is primarily focussed on promoting the use of forest biomass from the woodlands of Navarra for use in heating systems in residential and community buildings, initially publicly owned, with plans to extend the formula to the private sector. The total budget for the project amounts to EUR 1.4 million, of which the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) is providing 1 million.
Together with Nasuvinsa, the partners in the project are: the Centre Tecnològic Forestal de Catalunya; the Agencia Extremeña de la Energía; the agency ENERAREA, in northern Portugal; the Communauté de Communes du Plateau de Lannemezan del, of the French department Hautes-Pyrénées; and the Association des Communes Forestières des Pyrénées Atlantiques (COFOR64) of the Pyrénées Atlantiques, as well as 19 associated entities.
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web de Promobiomasse
The Promobiomasse website was presented by Nasuvinsa, the public company of the Government of Navarra, at the steering committee conducted by all the project partners at Lannemezan, (Occitanie, France). The new website https://promobiomasse.eu, with versions in English, Spanish, French and Portuguese, provides information on the goals and progress of this European project and, in the future, any pilot schemes implemented.One of the key goals of Pomobiomasse is to identify good practices existing throughout the SUDOE territory (southwestern Europe), in relation to the extraction, processing, logistics, marketing and demand for biomass, in order to produce a model that covers supply and demand, that can be applied by the partners in the project, and that encompasses the entire SUDOE territory. Organisations and individuals interested in biomass as an energy source will find examples of good practices on the website and can use a simple search engine to locate best experiences based on the type of organisation making the search, the raw material used, the type of machinery used or the customers targeted, among other criteria.
In the Frequently Asked Questions section, the new website offers information on biomass, how it can be used to produce thermal, electrical and mechanical energy, in addition to the various national and international certifications available to guarantee the quality of the energy products obtained from biomass. The news and agenda sections feature all the latest news and events relating to the project and to the biomass market in general.
Biomass, which is obtained from animal and plant organic matter, constitutes a renewable energy source. The benefits associated with the development of a biomass energy market include reduced greenhouse gasses, less waste, by putting it to good use, and lower external energy dependence. Furthermore, there are other benefits related to regional development, such as the creation of local employment and the valorization of local forest resources, in regions that could have an important biomass potential that has not yet been exploited.
Promobiomasse, a commitment to the short-circuit market
The “Project” section of the website explains that Promobiomasse is an initiative focussed on transnational cooperation as a means to promote the biomass energy market in the SUDOE territory, by developing a supply and demand management model that applies the “short circuit” concept in order to resolve current problems: destructuring of supply; forest ownership divided into small holdings; inefficient exploitation methods; unknown and insufficient demand. The short-circuit model, which is similar to the one applied to local agricultural products, involves a lower environmental impact and a boost to local development.
This section also includes links to the project partners: the Centre Tecnològic Forestal de Catalunya (CTFC); the public society of the Navarra Government – Navarra de Suelo y Vivienda, SA (NASUVINSA); the Agencia Extremeña de la Energía (AGENEX); the Agência Regional de Energia e Ambiente do Interior (ENERAREA), of Región Norte Portugal; the Communauté de Communes du Plateau de Lannemezan (CCPL), of the French department Hautes-Pyrénées; and the Association des Communes Forestières des Pyrénées Atlantiques (COFOR64) of the Pyrénées Atlantiques, as well as 19 associated entities.
Given that the Promobiomasse project is 75% co-funded by the Interreg SUDOE program through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), the website devotes another of its menus to this program. It explains that Interreg SUDEO (abbreviation for the INTERREG V-B Southwestern European Cooperation Program) supports regional development in the southwest of Europe, by funding transnational projects.
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More than 50 people, from partners to territorial experts from Promobiomasse, gather in Lannemezan (Occitania, France) to advance the creation of an integrated model for local management of the biomass market
On the 19th, 20th and 21st of February, partners from the SUDOE Promobiomasse project will meet in the Casino at Capvern in Lannemezan (Hautes-Pyrénées) to assess the measures carried out through the project and outline future courses of action.
Promobiomasse is a transnational cooperation project that aims to bolster the biomass energy market in the SUDOE territory (south-west Europe) through a supply and demand management model that applies a “short circuit” concept; solving current problems of supply breakdown, the transformation of forest property into smallholdings, inefficient exploitation models, and unawareness of demand or lack thereof.
The benefits of developing a biomass energy market include reducing greenhouse gases and reducing dependence on exterior energy sources. Further benefits are those related to regional development, including local job creation and the appreciation of local forest resources in regions capable of having an as yet untapped, but significant biomass potential.
Putting in place PROMOBIOMASSE projects can serve as a demonstration for local plans related to the exploitation of forest resources.
The project’s partners include the Forest Science and Technology Centre of Catalonia (CTFC); Navarra, Housing and Land (NASUVINSA), a public corporation of the Government of Navarre; the Extremadura Energy Agency (AGENEX); the Energy and Environment Regional Agency of the Interior (ENERAREA) of northern Portugal; the Lannemezan Plateau Community of Communes (CCPL) of the French department Hautes-Pyrénées; and the Association of Forest Communes of Pyrénées-Atlantiques (COFOR64), from the Atlantic Pyrenees, in addition to 19 other organisations.
Promobiomasse operates with a budget of 1,437,000 euros and is 75% co-financed by the InterregSudoe program through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). The Interreg SUDOE program (an abbreviation meaning the European South West Interreg V-B Cooperation Program) supports regional development in south-western Europe by financing transnational projects.
Good practice and future challenges
During the meeting that will take place in Lannemezan, an inventory of good practices related to the extraction, logistics and demand for biomass in the SUDOE territories will be presented. This will include an in-depth analysis of cases addressing Pyc’en Bois, Innovation Base, a territorial supply plan and the exploitation of forests with steep slopes in the Gaves Valley. Furthermore, a visit of the biomass boiler in Balnéa (Loudenvielle) is planned.
The meeting will also introduce the website www.promobiomasse.eu and present pilot experiments planned for each territory, thus advancing in the project’s work methodology both regarding the Transnational Technical Committee and the Committee of Experts. These committees will, moreover, address the main challenges and solutions with respect to the extraction, logistics and promotional plans for biomass.
News
On 14th December, the Promobiomasse project was presented in Maldà to a number of agents from the biomass sector in Cataluña. The main objective of the project was to promote the forest biomass energy market in the SUDOE (Southwestern Europe) territory, by developing a supply and demand management model that applies the “short circuit” concept in order to resolve the current problems: destructuring of supply; forest ownership divided into small holdings; inefficient exploitation methods; unknown and insufficient demand.
Partners from Navarra, Cataluña, Extremadura, Sud Occitanie, Pyrénées-Atlantiques and Región Norte, Portugal are taking part in POMOBIOMASSE. The Centre de Ciència i Tecnologia Forestal de Catalunya (CTFC) is to implement three action plans in Catalunya: models and techniques in the sustainable extraction of forest biomass; improvement in the working conditions in the forest and in the production of forest biofuels; and a plan for the short-circuit supply of biomass to municipal boilers.
