Green New Deal and renewable energy from wood

It was discussed at Progetto Fuoco during the “Green New Deal and renewable energy from wood” conference, organized by AIEL, Piemmeti SpA, Ministry of the Environment and PrepAIR Project.
Positive news on the diffusion of renewable energies came from Paolo Liberatore, head of the statistical office of the GSE (Energy Services Manager, SpA controlled by the Ministry of Economy): about 20% of the consumption of thermal energy in Italy is covered by sources of renewable energy.
Consumption of biomass energy is around 70% of total consumption from renewable sources in the thermal sector and 30-35% of total energy consumption from RES.
This increase is also due to the diffusion of the thermal account, which recognizes an economic incentive up to 65% of the expense for replacing old appliances with new technologies. In the last three years, in fact, about 60% of the interventions required in the Thermal Account concerns the replacement of biomass boilers and stoves and absorbing about 50% of the incentives received.

There were 67,000 requests for incentives, equal to 288.5 million euros recognized in 2019 within the Thermal Account, to replace old plants, mainly to Lombardy, Veneto and Piedmont. By 2030 Italy is planning a drastic overhaul of the 9 million old generators, 70% of which are more than 10 years old. If in fact the pellet stoves (22% of the biofuel) in Italy belong to the latest generations of appliances, very old wood heating appliances, that burn 77% of the biofuel, are still working, as explained by Valter Francescato, AIEL technical director, during the conference moderated by Fabio Romeo of the Ministry of the Environment – Air Pollution sector.

As to bio-consumption levels, in Italy 72.3% regards wood, 19.2% pellets and 8.5% wood chips.
Consumption by type of appliance, on the other hand, sees wood boilers in first place, followed by closed fireplaces, wood stoves and wood- burning cookers.
Silvia Pillon, of ARPAV Veneto, examined the results of 23,000 interviews carried out in 2019 in the Po Valley for the PrepAIR project, funded by the European Union.
One in five families uses wood for heating or cooking, there are one million wood stoves in use and 480,000 pellets stoves.