The province of Overijssel wants to invest money again in biomass that involves burning wood. According to the provincial government, biomass is 'necessary for the energy transition and to achieve the climate challenge'.
The Overijssel Energy Fund must therefore be turned on again for certain applications of biomass. This mainly concerns heat applications, such as the heating of monumental buildings or city centres, if no sustainable alternatives (such as heat pumps) are available.
In industry, for example, biomass could be used for 'process heat' in the asphalt industry. It is expected that in the long term there will be more sustainable alternatives, based on hydrogen or electricity.
That is why the province of Overijssel initially imposed origin requirements for the wood. But: “To our surprise, that turned out not to be allowed,” said deputy Tijs de Bree last year. This fact and the fact that new policy was being developed in The Hague were reasons to suspend the financing of biomass through the Overijssel Energy Fund.
According to the province, this new policy is now in place. By focusing on 'desired' applications and with the set conditions, the province believes it is now responsible to financially support biomass projects.
'Biomass necessary'
Biomass is an important part of the new energy plans of the province of Overijssel. This is emphasized several times in the proposal to the Provincial Council to agree to refinancing biomass. It is also stated that the government sees the use of biomass as 'necessary' for making the economy more sustainable and achieving the climate challenge.
The coalition agreement also states that the new cabinet wants to phase out 'the use of woody biomass' for energy purposes 'as quickly as possible'. “We only allow the use of woody biomass produced in the EU, so that we can monitor compliance with sustainability criteria.” The government also wants sustainable alternatives to biomass for heat applications to be developed 'accelerated'.
Overijssel is also focusing on innovation, hoping to develop technologies that can replace biomass or help to use biomass more efficiently and at a higher quality.
Source: rtvoost.nl
