Austria Puts Its Energy Into Plant Power (biomass)

[jpak]

http://www.latimes.com/news/science/environment/la-ft-austria13feb13,0,5265044.story?coll=la-news-environment

Wood smoke curling from chimneys of an Alpine village encapsulates the picture postcard image of Austria. But the reality is fast becoming more high-tech: sleek, smoke-free boilers burning wood pellets or other biomass fuels to heat villages, factories and urban housing, with a neutral effect on carbon emissions.

In 2003, nearly 70% of Austria's domestically produced power came from renewable sources. Biomass fueled 11.2% of Austria's total primary energy supply and 21% of heat production, according to International Energy Agency statistics.

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[jilln]

1. any idea what our percentage is?

Sweden, Iceland and Austria are kicking our ass...

[jpak]

2. New England is the only part of the US

where biomass plays a significant role in power production.

Maine produces ~20% of its electricity from wood waste.

There is at least one new Maine plant in the works and another that just announced a "significant upgrade" in its capacity.

...and 40 MW of new wood-fired capacity planned for Massachusettes.

(...and a lot of Maine households use wood for some or all of their winter heating too...)

[jilln]

3. when you say "wood"

do you mean wood waste? Which I assume is leftover chips from making furniture, houses, etc.?

[jpak]

4. Yes - from Maine's forest products industry

~80-90% wood waste (sawdust, slabs etc.), the rest from logging debris (and some demolition debris)...

[NNadir]

5. Here are the IEA figures for renewable energy in Austria.

http://www.iea.org/Textbase/stats/renewoecd.asp?oecd=Austria&SubmitB=Submit&COUNTRY_LONG_NAME=Austria

I have taken the liberty of converting all this energy to exajoules. My calculations show that Austria produced 0.148 exajoules of electricity via the renewable means listed. Of this, 94.1% was represented by hydroelectricity, power that will be available until the Austrian glaciers are gone with global climate change.

Austria produced another 0.0043 exajoules of thermal renewable energy, dominated by "solid biomass," presumably wood, 72% of the renewable thermal and followed by municipal waste burning, 18%.

Overall, 92% of the renewable energy in Austria is provided by hydroelectric power. The next largest source is "solid biomass," again presumably wood, at 3.9% of the total renewable output.

The total renewable output of Austria, thermal + electric was 0.151 exajoules.

According the the Energy Information Agency, not the IEA, the use of primary energy in Austria was 1.535 exajoules. http://www.eia.doe.gov/pub/international/iealf/tablee1.xls

All figures, IEA and EIA, are for 2003.

The percentage of renewable energy produced in Austria is therefore, ignoring the small efficiency considerations for forms of energy that are not hydroelectric, is slightly under 10%. Almost all of this energy is hydroelectric power, which is not surprising for a mountainous country like Austria. As I indicated, they're going to have a problem on their hands if their glaciers disappear.