The thermal use of biomass has experienced an exponential growth in recent years thanks to the technification of the equipment. In a short time it has gone from using wood (with the drawbacks that this entailed) to the consumption of wood pellets, which leads to greater comfort, versatility and cleanliness, while maintaining the environmental advantages and the price.
The increase in the use of biomass has a great environmental importance in the conservation of forests and pine forests, in addition to contributing to the maintenance of local employment and, therefore, of local economies. It is a solution that provides quality of life to users and represents financial savings for families, companies and administrations.
The most important renewable energy in Europe
Biomass is the most important renewable energy in Europe, since it concentrates the 63% of renewable energy production. And if you only look at its thermal use - that is, heating - where biomass is very competitive, biomass is a generalized trend, which is already 16% of heating. Other renewable energies used are thermal solar, which provides the 0,41%, or geothermal, with the 0,14%.
In recent years, some 4,5 million high-efficiency biomass stoves and boilers have been installed in Europe, according to data from the EPC 2017 survey. These teams and the more than 315.000 professionals in this sector are the ones who have allowed to use biomass of local origin and in a sustainable way, instead of having required a consumption equivalent to some 98.000 million liters of diesel for heating.
The forecasts of the sector point to a sustained growth in the number of facilities in the coming years, while improving the energy efficiency of all the equipment, in order to generate more and more energy with the same amount of biomass and guaranteeing the safety of supply to the inevitable depletion of fossil resources, such as gas and oil.