Best practice in biomass chains

1.

Bioenergy villages: Local heat supply nets ........................ 2

2.

Biomass hubs: Biomass trade and logistic centre .............. 4

3.

Landscape management: Hedges as an energy source .... 6

Working groups

Technic

Bioenergy villages are community led initiatives that have

Finance

implemented their own local heat supply net. A central aspect a

Public relations

bioenergy village is the collective and multi stakeholder

Integration of objective experts

approach that involves all kind of actors: Farmers, politicians,

Integration of big consumers

administration

Synergies with of other construction plans

1. Bioenergy villages: Local heat supply nets

and

many

other

formal

or

non-formal

organisation. the organisation as cooperatives. Bioenergy

villages are community projects and usually prefer the

Activision of community

organisational form of cooperatives.

Transparency

Keep to the time schedule

Heat concepts

All questions have to be answered

Wood heat plant

Personal addresses: street team

Utilization of waste heat from biogas plants

Public relations

Integrated planning of biogas and local heat supply net

Information event with experts (from outside)

Expansion of existing projects

Municipality has model character

Conversion of existing heat supply nets

Double roles are problematic

Combination wood heat plants and biogas

Carefree package: Second hand market for old heating

systems

Forming an initiative group

Giving the community a vision

Do not ask or expect too much from community

Best practice examples of bioenergy villages:

Bioenergiedof Jhnde
www.bioenergiedorf.de

Bioenergiedorf Oberrosphe
www.bioenergiedorf-oberrosphe.de

Bioenergdorf Schnstadt
www.nw-schoenstadt.de

2. Biomass hubs: Biomass trade and logistic

centre

monopoly position. This gets even more important when having

natural disasters (wind, storm, snow and ice) that regularly
release huge amount of biomass that are problematic for

Biomass hubs are regional supply centres of biomass. Biomass

farmers.

hubs work as decentralized market places and offer a range of

different biomass products for energetic use and other biomass
related services. They fill the gap between harvesting of
biomass and heat production. A biomass trade centre is a
service station for wood fuels.
Biomass hubs can be an answer for several problems in the

Biomass hubs help to solve such problems by managing the

coordination and cooperation between the producers and
between producers and customers. They do this by (1) buying
and selling directly at the biomass hub or by (2) arranging and
organizing of biomass delivery directly from the farmers.

value chain of energetic use of woody biomass:

Central aspects
Problems of the customers
Costumers of biomass often face problems concerning quality

Space for drying and filtering increases wood chip quality

Long term storage possible (a working supply chain has to

secure long term supply availability)

und secure of supply. This is mainly, because of different sales

and measurement methods (e.g. lose or arrange cbm, weight

Central, local marketplace for wood chips increases

accessibility and marketing potential

(kg), energy (kWh)) and different in water and moisture content.

Short transport distances

Problems of the farmers

Security of supply

If there is only one purchaser for industry/energy timber wood

Secured documented control about quality

farmers are often affected by price dumping, because of a

Secured documented control about amount

Labelling as guarantee for quality

Synergies for active drying with local biogas plants and

industry possible

Synergies with other renewable energies (e.g. PV) and

biomass products possible

Best practice examples of biomass hubs:

Biomassehfe Waldverband Steiermark

http://www.biomassehof-stmk.at

Biomassehof Allgu
www.biomassehof.de

Biomass TradeCentre II
www.biomasstradecentre2.eu

3. Landscape

management:

Hedges

as

an

energy source

Active involvement of inhabitants and other actors

Direct interaction with owners (Hello, I have a hedge!)

Good starting point, because of starting work with people

that are already willing to participate

Energiequelle Wallhecke - stoken op streekhout

In the project Energiequelle Wallhecke - stoken op streekhout

Fragmented mapping, important LE might not be

mapped

the energetic harvesting of hedges has been implemented. The

central process of this initiative is organising to harvesting

Wrong reporting possible

process of hedges. Central elements of this are reporting and

Post rating still necessary

tendering lots/ contracting.

Tendering lots/ contracting
Reporting instead of mapping

A problem with the energetic use of hedge and the contracting

Mapping hedge to organise a long term hedge management

of harvesting work can arise from the tendency of economic

can demanding and time consuming task. Instead mapping all

optimisation. This might lead to a situation where hedge with a

hedges and contacting their owners if they want to offer their

high woody biomass potential are favour for harvesting and

hedges for management, in this approach owners report their

difficult hedges with less biomass are neglected. To solve this

hedge

problem in this project were hedges of different biomass

in

cause

they

are

interested

in

an

energetic

management.

potential were put into one lot. Hedges with higher biomass

Pragmatic solution, especially when the number LE

potential are mixed with hedges with lower biomass potential to

owners is high

ensure that all tenders are equally interesting for harvesting.

Pre mapping of LE and ownership not necessary (in

Pragmatic solution if harvesting has to be tendered

large areas this would very time consuming)

All LE (also less attractive LE) will be harvested

Setting of standards

Key aspects:

LE owners have nearly no efforts

Financially sound landscape management

Harvest by local enterprises increases local value

Retaining profits within the region

creation

Producing renewable heat

Costs of contracting harvest might not be covered 100%

Boosting the quality of the landscape

by value of woody harvest

All players in the biomasschain win

Quality and knowledge of contracted harvester can be

Expanding regional employment

hard to predict, damages of LE possible

Cost neutrality can be achieved by public subsidies

Post evaluation of harvested areas necessary

The cooperative covers the whole value chain:

Supply

Conservation agencies (e.g. state forest)

Municipalities

Biomassaland

Private land owners (e.g. farmers, private estates)

The project Biomassaland has implemented a cooperative

Contractors

www.energiequelle-wallhecke.de

biomass chain. Its goal is it to create added value for the region
and the cooperative by mobilising regional biomass in a

Demand

sustainable way. To establish short value chains they

Farmers

established local logistic solutions by implementing biomass

Municipalities

hub and involving local players.

Businesses

Energy companies

Service providers

Contractors

Logistical partners

ANV

BBA

Planning the harvest - the right amount at the right time

with right specification: The BHOP-system
Landscape-element Measure and planning GIS database
Year plan Field check

Lessons learned

Cooperative businessmodel key to success

(Independent) coordinator crucial

Financial involvement government vital

No Dollar$-signs

Keep it simple!

Patience, dedication, enthusiasm, professional approach

Learning by doing: get started!

Tailored to the region

Optimization instead of maximization

Investing profits back into the landscape and biomass chain

www.biomassalland.nl