The European Pellet Conference, held this year in Wels has been the scene in which the conference director, Christiane Egger, highlighted the growth of biomass in Upper Austria, the region where the event takes place: 35% of domestic heating systems already work with biomass.
La substitution of old installations of diesel and other fossil fuels by modern biomass boilers has achieved reduce greenhouse gas emissions in a 43% in 10 years (2005-2015) in the residential sector.
Egger trusts in the "stick and carrot" technique: bans on diesel boilers (stick) and aids, both to the replacement of boilers and to innovation.
Gas oil heating systems will be prohibited in Austria from 2020.
The next step will be to prohibit the installation of gas heaters. For the moment, since the January 1 2019, diesel heating in new buildings in Lower Austria is prohibited. Vienna implemented the measure at the end of March, going a step further by prohibiting the use of diesel in the renovation of large buildings.
Austria waits replace 600.000 diesel heating systems in the next years. In this way, it would achieve a double economic objective: reduce penalties for non-compliance with its climate objectives and reduce imports of fossil fuels.
Advantage Austria coordinates the participation of the leading companies in the biomass sector in Austria: Herz, Okofen, Rika, Solarfocus, Hargassner, Windhager, Hass + Sohn, Kohlbach, Austrian Email and ETA.