K u rzfassu n g sb an d - Graz University of Technology

Energieinnovation 2006 171
6.4 Biomasse und Abfälle (Session F1)
6.4.1 „The development of biomass markets in CEE“
Jaroslav Knápek (Czech Technical University in Prague/FEL) 1 ,
Jan Weger (Vukoz) 2 ,
Reinhard Haas, Lukas Kranzl (TU-Wien/Energy Economics Group) 3
Currently, a variety of European policy targets are focussing on increasing the share of renewable
energy. A major part of this share will be based on biomass. The inclining biomass use will lead to an
emerging biomass market, which partly will be a cross-border market. In particular the biomass use in
central and eastern Europe countries will be strongly influenced between countries and of course the
policy instruments focussing on biomass will strongly influence this development.
This paper deals especially with the development and prospects of biomass market in Austria and the
Czech Republic considering the development in whole CEE. The core questions investigated in this
paper are:
• Which promotion schemes for bioenergy are currently implemented in central European
countries
• What is the current state of biomass use in these countries
• What are the potentials, prospects and barriers for biomass development in these countries
• Which conclusions can be derived for the future biomass market development and which
measures should be taken
This paper provides a comparative survey about promotion schemes in Austria, the Czech Republic
and other central eastern European countries. Biomass markets, potentials and demand for biomass
resources are investigated. Moreover, prospects for the biomass market in the Czech Republic and
Austria are carried out.
The comparative investigation of promotion schemes shows that in the field of electricity generation
from biomass, the dominating instrument in the considered countries is a feed-in-tariff. Comparing the
level of feed-in-tariff it turns out that in Austria and Germany the incentives are significantly higher (in
the range of 8-16 c/kWh) than in the other countries (about 3 to 8 c/kWh). Moreover, in Germany and
Austria a stronger distinction is made between various fuels and size of plants.
In the bioheat sector, the most important promotion schemes in all countries are subsidies, partially
combined with tax incentives and soft loans. However, the comparison of the level of subsidy is not
straightforward since there are often additional requirements and restrictions like maximum level of
support, maximum available budget etc.
For biofuels in the transport sector, the most dominating instruments are tax exemptions and the
biofuel directive of the EU. Thus, an important parameter is the level of taxation of fossil fuels. The
comparison between these countries shows that Germany has significantly higher taxes on gasoline
and diesel as the other countries. Among the others, taxation is especially low in Croatia and Poland,
and for diesel also in Austria.
1 Czech Technical University in Prague, FEL; Technicka 2, 166 27 Praha 6, Czech rep.
Tel: +420 224353315, Fax:+420 233334232; e-mail: knapek@fel.cvut.cz;
2 VUKOZ, Kvetnove nam. 391, 252 43 Pruhonice, Czech rep.
Tel: +420 296528267, Fax:+420267750440, e-mail: weger@vukoz.cz;
3 Energy Economics Group, Institut für Elektrische Anlagen und Energiewirtschaft,
Technische Universität Wien, Gußhausstraße 25-29/373-2, 1040 Wien
Tel: +43 1 58801/37351, Fax: +43 1 58801/37397, e-mail: Lukas.Kranzl@tuwien.ac.at;