The boiler houses of Donetsk will be converted to solid biofuels
According to the data received from the General Directorate of accomplishment and public service of Donetsk City Council, the municipal coal boiler houses will be converted to alternative energy sources soon. A few days ago, the deputies of Donetsk City Council approved and adopted the "Integrated program for the treatment with wood wastes and adjusting coal boilers for the use of solid wood biofuels".
As the representatives of the Directorate stated, the purpose of the program is to reduce gas consumption and improve the situation with the environment in the city. The presented program is complex, it consists of four inter-related projects which are planned to be implemented by 2015. The first step is to create the production plant for processing wood waste into fuel pellets. At the same time, the creation and technical supply of the teams dealing with cutting and uprooting trees, as well as transporting wood waste are intended. The third project is the reconstruction and installation of solid fuel equipment with automated fuel supply to boilers belonging to "Teploset" company. The fourth project involves the recultivation of land with the purpose to create a resource base in the territory of "Klion" co-operative farm. The required investment for the project implementation is 67 million UAH.
As the analysts of Ukrainian bioenergy sector say, every year there appear more and more boiler houses, where instead of the previously used natural gas, wood chips, sunflower husks, and the pellets of wood waste are the main fuels for producing heat.
In experts’ opinion, today the resource potential of Ukraine lets substitute more than 6 billion cubic meters of gas by renewable fuels. In particular, the annual capacity of agricultural wastes (cereal straw) is about 10 million tons, agro-processing wastes (sunflower husks) – 1.1 million tons of and wood wastes – 1.8 million tons. The replacement of natural gas by alternative fuels will allow Ukrainian utility and industrial enterprises to save over 20 billion UAH per year on purchasing energy carriers by getting the opportunity to provide not only the stability of rates, but their decrease by 10-15% as well. Every year utility companies receive more than 25 billion UAH from the state budget as the subsidies to compensate the difference between the net cost of heat and the rates.
According to analysts' estimates, for the implementation of energy efficiency projects the investments at a level of 27 billion UAH are required. Therefore, the funds allocated from the state budget as subsidies, can be returned in less than 2 years, subsequently providing the mentioned amount to the revenue side.
