Pellets market development in Italy
The very first analysis of pellets heating market situation showed that the market encounters many problems which slow down its’ development. The first thing that comes into eyes is that the pellets market is not clear enough and its development is not homogeneous. The main barrier which slows down the development of Italian pellets market, goes about the lack of appropriate rules of product classification and quality management system. As generally accepted, the pellets market should be divided in accordance with fuel characteristics and usage type. This notion confirms the importance of products standardization and certification systems development, which will enable the transparency of quality/ price correlation. Such system will be profitable for more professional pellets producers, heating units’ manufacturers and end- users.
In order to provide more detailed description of some pellets market peculiarities, one has to examine the following factors. The first one lies in the fact that the pellets prices stability in Italy depends on the right supplier presence. The latter should not be a problem as new suppliers and producers appear on a constant basis, increasing the competence in such way. Plus, the technology is being developed on a constant basis, by thus increasing the amount of supply, the amount of heating technologies and their applications. Italy is particularly interested at the increase of agri- pellets application, due to their low price, compact and efficient processing technology.
As pellets processing technology varies greatly from other heating technologies, end users do not have enough trust for it. In order to shift to new heating technology the adaptation period is required. Plus, one should take into account the fact that due to various materials used for pellets manufacturing, all materials should have guaranteed quality and appropriate label (“know what to buy”).
The country has favorable circumstance for pellets industry development such as Kyoto targets, the development of country infrastructure and services, technology and suppliers. It goes about national manufacturing amounts and import. The pellets manufacturers have the possibility to obtain various support types: financial support with the Banks for Third Party Financing (TPF), fiscal support from state, local authorities assistance. Plus the project feasibility from the social point of view is evident: pellets heating system project partner has good contacts with local authorities in Italy and provides the employment for socially problematic persons.
But the only difficulty with local authorities lies in the fact that they have no clear idea on how to prepare regulatory documents related to safety and environment. That is why one of the project tasks will be to prepare some guidelines on how to make such kind of documents. Another thing is that taking into account such unsure local authorities prefer to deal with small –scale manufacturing cycle and regard the large scale one as further option. Another difficulty is about the fact that the prices vary greatly- the variation makes from 180 to 400 Euro per ton, which makes the community to have serious doubts about such kind of investment.
Taking into account the aforementioned facts industry experts think that medium scale pellets heating technologies will be further developed in case if Valdinievole authorities will take active part at this project implementation; the bank which is able to provide local authorities with the possibility to give financial support for pellets system and which takes care about social and environmental issues, will be found; the contracts between pellets producers and local social cooperatives, as well as with services having more than 30% of socially problematic personnel; provide companies interested with pellets heating systems with the best experiences, adopted at this industry domain. For example, the local authority of Monsummano Terme visited hotel which uses pellets heating of 540 kW Another thing which should be taken into account is that local authorities need to keep contacts with pellets manufacturers in order to have updated information about pellets presence and their prices. Local authorities also think about the option to have pellets storage center which will enable to distribute the product to local communities by thus providing the possibilities to make the discounts based on quantity.
The project authors consider necessary to promote ESCO system on the territory and think private companies are able to implement such service, but public initiative in form of local authorities’ consortium can be regarded as alternative as well. In order to provide the quality guaranties experts consider that project authors should keep contacts with institutional authorities for the creation of well defined rules of pellets classification.
The project ideologists also point out the possibility to get useful fuel from humid biomass without using thermal drying procedure. The humid biomass processing technology is not expensive and is convenient for small scale pellets manufacturing, by simultaneously valorizing the operation remnants from local swamps. Plus, mixed biomass resources can be pelletized without any binding compound usage. Such small scale pellets processing systems having the capacity of 50 kg per hour will be put on sale in the nearest future. If 11 Italian regions local authorities will find suitable combustion technologies for agri-pellets processing they will accept the manufacturing of home-made pellets in two years after using commercial pellets for heating purposes. Such pellets may be sold to various industries actors for heating purposes (industries in Italy do not use pellets for heating purposes yet, but such usage will favor the fulfillment of CO2 emissions restrictions).
To sum up industry experts specify that regions need various stimulus for pellets heating systems installations, based on the example of Florence.
