Highlights
| Biomass | biomass | |
| Asse renovates heating installation technical service-department to biomass installation fed with the wood coming from their green management. | |
| Biomass boiler 150 kW | |
| 125.000 € |
Asse is one of the municipalities that is an example of how REScoops and municipalities can join their forces to mobilize citizens to invest in sustainable energy and energy efficiency. In 2014, Ecopower constructed 4 windturbines in Asse.
We share our knowledge on a circular model where the biomass boiler is feeded with wood coming from the green management of the public wooded areas and the areas consisting of short rotation wood (e.g. hedges, boscage, tree lines). We invested in a detailed study to evaluate different scenarios for the renovation of the biomass heating system (replace the existing system with a biomass heater versus a gas heater, versus a heat pump versus a combination,...). The result of the study is that replacing the existing system with a biomass boiler system is a feasible, with a system using gas boilers being the alternative choice.
Additional information
Ecopower constructed 4 windturbines in Asse. From in the beginning, the project has been developed in close collaboration with the municipality. We motivated and adviced them on writing a charter explaining their vision on sustainability in the long term. This charter was broader than the wind turbines, but was an important instrument to get the necessary support for the wind project.
Ecopower highly values strong partnerships between local authorities and REScoops, so we offer much more services than pure the profitable renewable energy projects like wind turbines. Ecopower is prepared to bundle the profitability of RE-projects with projects on EE, so projects with a low - or very unsure profitability become possible.
A part of the profit of the wind turbines is invested in providing energy consultancy services to renovate the heating installation of the builings of the technical services-department.
A lot of effort is put in raising enough awareness in the municipality about the importance of a widespread support for the project in every chain of the process. The quality of the wood ships is highly detemined by the way the wood is harvested, chipped, stored and dried. Next to that, heating a building by using a biomass boiler is much more labour intensive than a heating system using gas boilers. The biomass heater needs maintenance on a daily / weekly basis (a container with wood ships has to be refilled if needed, ashes have to be removed, the system needs regular cleaning,...)
So we set up a project team with all the parties involved represented in it (coordinator technical service, coordinator public buildings Asse, staff members responsible for chipping, storing and drying the wood ships, Ecopower, organisation responsible for managing and harvesting the short ration wooded areas and other public wooded areas,...).
This exercice happened to be more complex for the municipality than they anticipated. But Ecopower kept on the importance of a widespread support for the project. Asse has hired new staff memebers that will be involved in this project, so in 2018, we hope to realise the project.