The European Bioenergy day campaign was launched this year by AEBIOM, the European Biomass Association, in order to raise awareness about the importance of bioenergy in the European energy mixture. The Bioenergy Day of each state corresponds to that date of the year from which onwards the country could theoretically fuel its final energy consumption exclusively with bioenergy.
The Greek Bioenergy Day for 2017 fell on Monday, 4th December, meaning that bioenergy can fuel the energy needs of Greece for 27 days!
In order to celebrate the occasion, the Biomasud Plus project partner CERTH co-organized together with the Hellenic Biomass Association (HELLABIOM) a Bioenergy Event at the Agricultural University of Athens.
During the event, presenters from research organizations, universities, companies and associations explained the different applications of bioenergy, the current extend of its use in Greece and in Europe and its potential role for the transition of the energy system.
Regarding biomass use for the domestic heating sector – which corresponds to 17 out of the 27 Greek Bioenergy Days – Mr. Manolis Karampinis from CERTH outlined in a presentation the current status of the legislation and the comparison of the costs and emissions from biomass heating in comparison with other technologies. In a second presentation, the importance of fuel certification for the biomass domestic heating sector was highlighted. In addition, the market status of Mediterranean biofuels for the domestic heating sector was presented. The key message was that the activities of the Biomasud Plus project can significantly contribute towards the sustainable development of this market.
The presentations of the event are available in Greek through the website of HellaBiom.
The event was supported by the European projects BIOmasud Plus (development of certification systems for Mediterranean solid biofuels) and uP_running (promotion of biomass usage at permanent crops). Both projects are financed by the EU program “Horizon 2020” for Research and Innovation (grant agreements 691763 and 691748 respectively) and are implemented in Greece by the Chemical Process and Energy Resources Institute (CPERI) of CERTH.