Six civic associations, manufacturers of pellet and individuals involved in the field of biomass, have founded the National Association for Biomass “Serbio”, said in a statement from the association.
The association was founded in order to affirm and develop the biomass market, by creating a favorable business environment for sustainable bio-energy sector in Serbia and promotion of public awareness about the possibilities of using biomass for energy purposes.
The aim of the association is to promote public-private partnerships in the field of biomass use and the advancement of knowledge, research and development of renewable energy sources in Serbia.
The total biomass energy potential in Serbia today is approximately 2.7 million toe (tons of oil equivalent), which is greater than the total amount of oil consumption in agriculture of Serbia, they emphasized. The greatest potential lies in agricultural biomass – about 1.7 million toe, while there is around one million tons in forest biomass.
In addition to the fact that increased use of biomass would contribute to reducing the use of fossil fuels, mainly oil products as fuel in heating plants, biomass combustion does not release harmful gases, so this fuel is environmentally desirable.
The statement reminds that the increasing use of organic fuels and reduction of carbon dioxide (CO2) emission are obligations of the Republic of Serbia, as a signatory to the Kyoto Protocol.
“However, the government has not invested enough in the utilization of this resource nor was it working on incentives for business enterprises engaged in the production, processing and distribution of biomass,” said the association “Serbio”.
They point out that there is no strategy for using biomass, or a special regulation that applies only to biomass, and there is no activity code related to biomass production in Serbia and they add that according to the new Law on ministries, at least three ministries have authority in terms of biomass.
Precisely for these reasons, they indicated, it was necessary to form the National Association for the biomass that will deal with the improvement of the business environment for biomass producers and connect different government institutions and private organizations in order to maximize the use of sustainable biomass.
The initiative for the establishment of the National Association for biomass was supported by the Embassy of the Kingdom of Norway, in the framework of the Strengthening civil society in Serbia program.
National Association for Biomass “Serbio” is based in Majdanpek, the municipality with the highest forest biomass potential, and Vojislav Milijić, forestry engineer was elected President.
Source Serbia Energy Magazine
