At an emergency meeting of the Executive Board of Crobiom, Association of Peat, Briquettes and Wood Biomass Producers, a motion was adopted on January 8 to propose a delay of the adoption of regulations on renewable sources, for which public consultation was held until January 13. The asociation drew attention to the overall situation regarding the need for greater use of biomass and wood fuel, the status of cogeneration plants and the contract with Croatian Energy Market Operator (HROTE), as well as the negotiation about contracts for raw material with public forest management company Hrvatske šume d. o. o.
Representatives of Crobiom expressed concern that the introduction of regulation is rushed immediately after the law on renewables came into force at the beginning of the year. The companies in the sector say the pellet business isn’t profitable as before, as several mild winters caused saturation in the market, and that the commodity’s prices dropped by one fifth because of imports from the United States.
Marijan Kavran, head of Croatian Wood Cluster, said the proposed regulations favour big producers, ones with cogeneration capacity between 5 MW and 20 MW.
Biomass plants quotas envisaged in the national action plan for 2020 were completed at the end of November, which is a limiting factor for all investors from the timber industry, but also for others interested in this sector, Crobiom said.
“We are committed to raising the share of biomass and wood fuel in Croatian energy strategies and the implementation of European policies on renewable energy sources, said Raoul Cvečić Bole, the association’s president. Given that some of the EU member states, such as Austria and the Baltic countries, exceeded the share of 30 percent of biomass in the total energy production in these countries, and that in Croatia such production is still unsufficient, it is inevitable to audit quota and reconceptualize national use of biomass, Crobiom said.
