Biomass-Based Heating in the Western Balkans: A Roadmap for Sustainable Development

A reliable and sustainable energy supply in the Western Balkan (W-B) region is essential to support the region’s economic growth and pave the way toward EU accession for its constituent nations.
For this reason, with the support of Energy Community Secretariat (www.energy-community.org), the World Bank initiated the “Sector Study on Biomass-based heating in the Western Balkans.”
The study aimed to help the W-B countries—Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro, Serbia, and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia—identify viable investment options and determine policy measures to increase the use of biomass for heating in a sustainable manner.

This is intended to:
(a) enhance energy security  in the region and the seven target countries
(b) improve the reliability and sustainability of the energy supply
(c) reduce greenhouse gas emissions and local air pollution
(d) help the countries cost-efficiently meet their 2020 renewable energy (RE) targets.

The project was financed by the Joint Grant Facility under the Western Balkans Investments Framework (WBIF). The Final report presents a summary of the key findings.
This report is intended primarily to address policy makers and biomass-heating industry stakeholders (biomass suppliers, manufacturers of heating appliances, installers, and investors and project developers), but also the scientific community, civil society organizations, and end-users in the W-B countries.

Full report available here

It is hoped that the report will be used to support policies to increase use of biomass for heating, to inform investment decisions, and to provide guidelines for sustainable, efficient, and economic biomass heating.

While the study is comprehensive, further research could be conducted, inter alia, to identify marginal or degraded agricultural land in the W-B countries and their potential use for growing energy crops, to develop methods to lower emissions from biomass combustion in residential-scale heating appliances and conversion technologies for use of agricultural residues.

The following messages and findings of the study are highlighted:

• Biomass is the most important heating energy source in the W-B region, in both rural and urban areas, accounting for 42% of the energy required for heating. In rural areas, biomass is the primary source of heating for the majority of the population. Rural households account for 63% of total biomass consumption, and urban households account for 37%.

• Unfortunately, a significant share of biomass is used inefficiently because of outdated equipment and the lack of wood drying before use. Apart from the loss of 40-50% of the energy content and higher energy costs of heating due to such practice, resulting particulate emissions contribute significantly to poor air quality in W-B cities.

• To advance changes of existing practices and circumstances, a comprehensive Roadmap is proposed, for improving framework conditions, increasing the volume of sustainable biomass supply, and improving the availability of, and investments in efficient bio-based heating technologies. Aim of the Roadmap, structured in three pillars, is to provide guidance for policy and financing in the short term (until 2020), and medium to long term (until 2030). The Roadmap contains a set of recommendations disaggregated into activities that should be implemented to improve the landscape for biomass heat in the Western Balkans. 

• Overall cost to implement the Roadmap to increase biomass-based heating in the W-B and make it more efficient and sustainable until 2030 is estimated to EUR 1.4 billion. Considering limited public finances in W-B countries and fiscal room to allow for adequate investments to biomass-based heating, there is a clear need for public and private sector to work together to implement the proposed Roadmap for sustainable scale-up of biomass for heating.

• There are significant economic opportunities for investments in the W-B. Replacement of inefficient stoves with efficient stoves, and switching from electric heating appliances to efficient biomass stoves in stand-alone buildings, switching from electric heating appliances to wood-chip–fired heating boilers in multistory buildings, and switching boilers from fossil fuels to biomass in existing district heating system all represent economically attractive options for the W-B countries and their citizens. Furthermore, these investments in efficient biomass heating technologies yield multiple benefits of energy costs savings, wood savings, reduced use of electricity, and reduced dust and greenhouse gas emission. Indeed, the costs of implementing the Roadmap can be more than offset by the economic value of these benefits.