CTO Assessment - European Commission

POLAND
from coal to biomass from
green urban areas
EC BALTIC RENEWABLE ENERGY CENTRE
Renewable Energy Centre of Excellence and Competence in Poland (RECEPOL)
ul. Reduta Zbik 5 • 80 - 761 Gdansk • Poland
Tel./Fax.: +48 58 301 57 88 • E-Mail: gdansk@ecbrec.pl • Website: www.ecbrec.pl
A wood fired heating system has been implemented
as a pilot project under the Joint
Implementation mechanism of Kyoto. The
realizations that aimed at replacing the
two old coal-burning tanks started in
1998 in Poland as a cooperation project
between the Dutch Government (who was
also the main financing body) and the
Polish Government with a cleaner source:
biomass.
The actors involved were: Biomass Technology
Group B.V. (BTG) from the Netherlands
was the coordinator of the project,
KARA Energy Systems from the Netherlands
supplied the boiler, EC Baltic Renewable
Energy Centre/Institute for Building
Mechanization and Electrification of
Agriculture (EC BREC/IBMER) from
Poland was a local coordination and the
Municipal Company of Communal Management
of Jelenia Gora was the project
partner and the local investor.
Main motivations
The reason for the project was the replacement
of the two old, inefficient coal burning
tanks that belonged to the Municipal
Waste Disposal Company. Due to the fact
that the same company is responsible for
the maintenance of green areas, the concept
arose to replace the low efficiency
coal-burning tanks with a wood fired heating
system that would utilise waste wood.
The plant is located in the area belonging
to the Municipal Waste Disposal Company,
which simultaneously is the owner
of the plant, and provides heat to the complex
of greenhouses that cover an area of
1,200 m 2 .
Project details
In Jelenia Gora and its neighbourhood,
waste wood from the maintenance of green
areas, to be utilised immediately for energy
production purposes is 700 m 3 and
the entire technical potential is equal to
2,540 m 3 . Directly, it refers to the potential
of 2,100 and 7,500 GJ respectively.
Such a potential equates to a possible energy
production capacity of 350 and 1,250
kW respectively.
The waste wood is shredded in the storage
place and then undergoes the process of
pre-drying. After some time it is transported
to another storage place for longterm
storage (a few months). One of the
storage places houses the wiping feeder
installed in the floor of the storehouse and
screw feeder, which automatically feeds the
wooden chips directly to the tank. The storage
house of a capacity of 50m 3 , depending
on the humidity of the fuel and the
ambient temperature and ensures constant
heating for the period of c.a. 24 – 48 hours.
An example of “Joint Implementation”
The basic idea behind “Joint Implementation”
is the decrease of carbon dioxide
(CO 2
) emission reduction costs (EUR per
ton CO 2,
). As this is often more expensive
to do in the Western European countries,
the idea of “Joint Implementation” for a
project in one of the Eastern European
countries became possible to realise. The
Dutch government finances the lion share
of the project and assists the receiving country
(Poland) in the implementation of its
CO 2
reduction projects, in return for CO 2
-
credits. The estimated share of emission
reduction units between projects partners
governments equals: the Netherlands 55%,
Poland 45%.
As a result, the Polish and Dutch government
agreed on a bilateral co-operation in
the field of joint abatement of greenhouse
gases. A wood fired heating system has
hence been implemented in Jelenia Gora.
Financing
The project was financed under the umbrella
of the Dutch Programme for Bilateral
Co-operation with the Dutch Ministry
of Economic Affairs by Government
Agency SENTER and by virtue of the agreement
signed among the Polish and Dutch
Governments.
Total cost of the investment was 928,160
PLN (206,258 EUR). The infrastructure
prepared for the purposes of the technology
application included: tank by KARA
with equipment, stack (purchase and
mounting), “moving floor” feeder additional
grid connection, storehouse for
wooden chips including drying system located
under the floor, air solar collector,
shredder, tank installation (mounting and
crane), documentation, other (truck loader,
roads and squares)
The Dutch government had financed the
purchase of the boiler, the preparing of all
investment: technical project, the feasibility
study and the monitoring system. The
Polish investor had financed mounting
costs and the costs of building other equipment
e.g. floor drying channels.
Environmental benefits
The following benefits were realised by the
installation of the biomass technology: savings
of 220 tones of coal by its replacement
with biomass, abandonment of the
storage of 385 tones of waste wood at the
landfill, and thus, reducing the greenhouse
gases emission resulting from the decay of
organic material, and a decrease in the fees
for using the environment. It was estimated
that throughout the period of the
project (15 years), the total reduction of
carbon dioxide emissions would be 21 thousand
tones of CO 2
equivalent.
86 CTO - Showcase