Solid Biomass in Hungary
General
According
to the Directive 2009/28/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on
the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources the target for the
share of energy from renewable sources in gross final consumption of energy in
the year 2020 for Hungary is 13% (in the year 2005 the share was 4.3%). The
Directive has a mandatory 10 % target for transport to be achieved by all
Member States, which refers to renewable sources as a whole, not biofuels alone.
Renewable electricity and
heating: Solid Biomass
Biomass is the
biggest sector of renewable energy use, due to geographical and other natural
conditions that makes Hungarian land favourable for
agricultural use. In
of firewood in 2008
which were mostly burnt in old, low-efficiency stoves and boilers. Residential
gas tariffs subsidized by the state, however, place a massive obstacle to the
wider use of technologies based on renewable energy sources. For electricity
production biomass is burnt directly or co-combusted to generate heat or
electricity to a smaller extent. Electricity production from renewable energy
sources was given a boost after 2003 by the conversion of existing power plant
capacities into biomass-fired. In the hope of cheaper fuel numerous Hungarian
district heating plants have switched to biomass and projects with a
substantial timber demand have been implemented i.e. the conversion of
previously coal-fired power plant blocks into biomass. These new energy
projects have substantially increased timber use for energy production in
The demand for
renewable energy will
be growing until 2020, when an estimated 7.8 to
8 million tons/year of biomass quantity will be required.
Due to the fact that
A licence from the Hungarian Energy Office (HEO) is required
to receive the feed-in tariff. The volume of electricity for which it is paid,
as well as the duration of the feed-in tariff in the licence
is limited by the HEO, based on the project payback period. The HEO as the
energy sector regulator has set up maximum limits beyond which the feed-in
tariff is not applied. In Hungary, electricity generated from renewable energy sources is promoted
through a price-regulation
in terms of a feed-in tariff. The Energy
Office sets the period of payment and the maximum amount
of eligible electricity in compliance with the statutory provisions
(§ 11 (3) Act Nr. LXXXVI of 2007). In 2011, newly connected systems are
entitled to the following payments: systems: value/kWh: 12.54-34.31 HUF/kWh (€0.0461368 - 0.126177 /kWh), depending on the peak/valey time and adjusted to inflation each year. The prices is guaranteed for 15 years.
Financial
support for RES investors comes from grants, subsidies and low-rate interest loans
that are provided by the State Environmental Protection Funds. They return the
revenues from fees for use of the environment as well as the fines from
non-compliance of environmental regulations again into environmental
investments. Some restrictions are established for subventions concern the
production of water energy plants of capacities over 5 MW, the production of
energy plants of capacities below 0.1 MW, and the energy production from wastes
that do not fulfill special conditions.
The Hungarian
support system is fairly visible until 2015. The following support instruments
will be in place:
• Supporting
green power through the obligatory feed-in system and later, through the green
certification system, which may be introduced in the future.
• Investment
subsidies financed by the European Union and
EU Structural
Funds (Operational Programme for Environment
Protection)
– 2007
– 2013: allocated EUR 25,3 billion
– 2 main
fields: Energy savings and Renewables For Renewable Energies (RES-E and heat generation): 200
million EUR
–
Supported projects: biomass, biogas, geothermal, small scale wind turbines
Future programme changes expected
Strategy forcasts a substantial amount of new investments by 2020,
in the field of biomass, wind, solar and geothermal energy. What is
more, electricity generation from RES will grow faster than heat generation.
According
to NREAP the expected installed biomass capacity in
Sources
National Renewable Energy Action Plan for
http://www.eh.gov.hu/gcpdocs/201101/honlaprafeedintariffshu_from_20110101_105.xlsx
http://ziuaenergiei.ro/pdf/Erste_Bank_Ladislav_Tolmaci.pdf
Global Feed
in Tariffs 2010 (http://www.globalfeedintariffs.com/feed-in-tariffs/
http://www.bbj.hu/index.php?id=54276
http://www.coach-bioenergy.eu/index.php/en/project-news/101-bigdevelopmenthungary.html
http://www.unido.org/fileadmin/media/documents/pdf/Energy_Environment/carpathians_session3_1.pdf
Interactive EurObserv’ER Database
http://www.eurobserv-er.org
Last update: January 2011