Promoting the penetration of agrobiomass heating in european rural areas
AgroBioHeat project aims to produce a mass deployment of improved and market ready agrobiomass heating solutions in Europe. Agrobiomass is a large, underexploited and indigenous resource, which can support the achievement of the European Energy and Climate targets, while promoting rural development and circular economy. AgroBioHeat actions will take place mostly in 6 EU countries (GR, ES, FR, RO, HR, UA; 5 EU28+Ukraine) where extensive engagement actions are foreseen. Engagement and matchmaking actions will lead to trigger more than 80 initiatives on agrobiomass for heat, 8 of which will be closely accompanied. To generate trust to market actors, the project will detect more than 100 cases running on agrobiomass and 12 will be approached, documented, visualized and visited by potential early adopters. Simultaneously, the project will perform more than 44 tests, covering different market heating technologies and agrobiomass in order to generate reliable data on its emissions and operational performance, and to show the market and community the existing improved technologies. On the EU level, these results will contribute to the anticipated review of the Ecodesign regulation for agrobiomass boilers, while providing suggestions for suitable emission limits in the 500 kW-1 MW range facilities; thus a harmonization of EU legislation will be achieved. Strategic plans for the deployment of agrobiomass for heating market will be drafted and discussed with more than 240 policy makers in the 6 countries. Promotion of the market includes agrobiomass corners at 15 fairs and a dedicated Observatory tool to visualize cases and technology. 60 technicians from ESCOs and installers in the 6 countries will be trained to be ready to adopt mature agrobiomass heating solutions. Social research capturing perceptions of at least 3,500 people will feed into the formulation of a tailored dissemination campaign, aiming to bring the agrobiomass heating solutions to a wider audience.