SAAEA 25 October 2012.

Today the biggest share of final energy is used as heat for cooking, for space heating, and for industry. Yet surprisingly, in most countries there is no policy for the small-scale heat market. Small-scale heat supply is the often the most overlooked area of global energy policy. In OECD countries most of the heat is supplied by fossil fuels or electricity, in developing countries heat is most often produced by inefficient wood based systems.

This fact sheet explains the attractive options modern biomass stoves and boilers offer for the heat market. Impressing technological innovations have been achieved in this sector in recent years, making heat from biomass a carbon neutral, environmental friendly, convenient and cheap alternative to fossil fuels.

The WBA would like to draw the attention of the public and the policy makers to theinteresting opportunities that small-scale biomass heat systems can offer today. An active policy to speed up the replacement of fossil driven heating systems by renewable heat such as biomass, would not only decrease the dependency from oil and gas imports but will also create many regional jobs, whilst simultaneously reducing consumer expenditure and ultimately lead to further reductions in CO2 emissions.