Biomass market in Poland: to encourage consumers for supporting producers
The analysts of Polish bioenergy market report that within the last five years the volumes of biomass imported to Poland grow tremendously. So if in 2007 the country imported about 300 million tons of renewable energy resources, in 2012 this figure already reached 2 million tons. The representative of the Ministry of Economy Piotr Chopek said that the government does not intend to impose any restrictions on the import of biomass. According to Mr. Chopek, today Poland is a part of the global economic system with its free movement of goods. Consequently, whatever barriers to import of products may adversely affect the general economy of the Polish energy system.
However, the representative of the Ministry of Agriculture Casimir Zhmud noticed that there are hundreds of thousands hectares of idle land, which could be used for biofuels production. For example, in just one Malopolskiy voivodeship there are about 100,000 hectares which are not used. Mr. Zhmud also stressed that biomass is primarily an environmentally friendly source of energy. Consequently the state authorities should make every effort to support the projects connected with its production.
In addition, Polish experts of bioenergy sector state that the activities of large energy companies led to the situation when in Poland a huge amount of biomass of agricultural waste is used in vain. These days millions of tons of this raw material are used at power plants for co-firing. With a more rational organization of the energy production process around 170,000 households could be heated by the same amount of biomass.
The experts affirm that in order to change these negative trends in the Polish energy market the system of green certificates functioning must be reconsidered seriously. First of all, these certificates must become available for owners of farms who are switching to alternative fuels and thus use the biomass from domestic producers. Today "green" energy sources are already available to farmers, but the prices are still too high. Therefore, at this stage, Polish government should encourage local biofuel consumers for supporting domestic biomass producers.
