Energia da Biomasse Solide
EBS
The Association is inspired by the ideals of democracy and environmental sustainability; pursues educational, cultural, social, educational and promotion purposes of initiatives related to the sphere of the world of renewable sources and, in particular, of energy production from solid biomass
ID: 447662035235-56
Lobbying Activity
27 Jul 2022
EBS welcomes the European Commission’s initiative to end EU dependence on Russian fossil fuels and increase the EU’s energy independence.
The EC calls for an acceleration of the roll-out of renewable energy to complete the energy transition and to replace the use of fossil fuels in final uses, this means building more renewable energy generation capacity, doing it quicker and ensuring wider integration of renewable sources into final energy uses. This challenge should not be underestimated, especially bearing in mind the EU energy mix is still 62% dependent on fossil fuels and we are only seven years away from the 2030 deadline. In this context, it is unwise to exclude biomass combustion plants from the definition of “renewable go- to-areas”.
The steering objective proposed in the REPowerEU Plan is to further increase the 2030 EU target of renewable energy sources in final energy consumption from 40% to 45% by 2030 and this represents an important scale up from the original target of 32% defined in the RED recast. This means that all RES should be considered equally and that discrimination among sustainable renewable technologies would be counterproductive for the EU’s energy ambitions.
The recent ACER report, in light of the energy price crisis, specifically mentions biomass among alternatives to provide more long-term flexibility when electricity demand is high, or supply is low. Biomass is fundamental to providing on demand renewable power and heat. To make the build out of intermittent wind and solar a success, non-fossil energy that can provide production flexibility is required, otherwise dependency (on gas) just becomes more acute.
Both the IEA and IPCC support the use and scale up of biomass, especially wood-based energy input with further improvements in power generation technologies and supply systems of biomass.
The provisions of key directives such as the Renewable Energy, Energy Efficiency, and Energy Performance of Building must be aligned in order to succeed. A mapping of the required space to be made available for renewable deployment in order to achieve national and EU renewable energy targets (Art. 15b) can provide important insights and inform the public and policy debate. The mapping of areas in line with the Renewable Energy Directive should be done in tandem with the local heating plans as outlined in the Energy Efficiency Directive (Art. 23, par. 6) and inform the National Energy & Climate plans. In parallel, policy makers should actively promote the deployment of renewables and use the information from both tools. Flanking the political push with sufficient human resources at implementing level will enable efficient and environmentally comprehensive processing of the permit applications.
While we acknowledge the intentions by designating go-to-areas, EBS is sceptical on its need and the overall effectiveness. Considering strained resources at authority level, focus rather should be on improving overall permitting timelines.
The new classification of renewables and related assets to be of overriding public interest as proposed by the European Commission is a strong signal sent about the importance of renewable energy sources and the related grid.
Bioenergy is the only energy source that has legally binding sustainability criteria in place to ensure that it is produced in an environmentally positive way. Given these legal requirements, there is no way to reconcile the exclusion of bioenergy. In addition, promoting bioenergy means reducing the risk of forest fires in the EU. Soaring temperatures and drought have made this phenomenon a real emergency in Europe. By sustainably managing Europe's forest fires in the EU. Soaring temperatures and drought have made this phenomenon a real emergency in Europe. By sustainably managing Europe's forest heritage, through the wise collection of harvesting residues for the energy supply chain, fire risk can be monitored and reduced.
The complete contribution is attached
Read full responseResponse to Guidance on REDII forest biomass sustainability criteria
27 Apr 2021
EBS riconosce l'importanza della guida operativa per consentire una rapida implementazione dei criteri di sostenibilità della biomassa forestale ed una loro attuazione solida e armonizzata da parte degli Stati membri e degli operatori economici.
La coerenza nell'interpretazione delle misure e la tempestività nel recepimento e nell'attuazione sono fondamentali per prevenire l'insorgere di ostacoli al mercato interno. La preparazione del sistema e degli strumenti per certificare la conformità sarà fondamentale per il suo funzionamento. Per evitare rallentamenti la Commissione europea dovrebbe, in collaborazione con le autorità nazionali, evitare che si generino lacune normative tra la domanda di mercato orientata alle politiche per la biomassa sostenibile e la sua disponibilità (certificata) sul mercato.
In attesa del riconoscimento da parte della Commissione europea dei regimi volontari e della pubblicazione delle norme, il settore europeo della bioenergia accoglie ampiamente con favore il contenuto del presente progetto e l'opportunità di commentarlo.
EBS desidera sottolineare che le attività di gestione forestale non sono guidate dal settore della bioenergia, infatti gli impianti di cui all'articolo 1 svolgono un ruolo minore nell'utilizzo della biomassa forestale concentrandosi su residui di basso valore, forniti da ampie aree sparse intorno agli impianti, che difficilmente giustificano report complessi e dettagliati.
Ci preme sottolineare che a livello italiano, la filiera legno, bosco, energia è largamente virtuosa. Oltre un terzo del territorio nazionale è coperto da boschi e foreste per un totale di circa 11 milioni di ettari, il doppio rispetto a un secolo fa e in aumento dello 0,2% annuo, principalmente a causa dell’abbandono di superfici coltivate. Di qui, un volume di legno disponibile pari a circa 1.27 miliardi di m3, in crescita del 2,8% per anno. A fronte di questi valori, l’uso del legname disponibile risulta molto limitato: i prelievi italiani sono infatti stimati a 0,71 m3/ettaro rispetto a una media europea di 2,39 m3/ettaro (Fonte: RSE (2019) Energia dalle biomasse legnose, DossieRSE).
EBS ritiene che l'inclusione delle raccomandazioni esposte nel documeno qui allegato migliorerebbe il documento e faciliterebbe l'operatività dei criteri di sostenibilità.
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