Wood Energy and Cleantech

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Wood for energy (such as wood chips, residuals and pellet) is an underutilised resource and vital to the northern part of the Baltic Sea Region for sustainable development. In regional, national and EU plans overall objectives are to use more bio energy in order to reduce climate effect. In the Baltic States fossil gas and oil are the dominating fuels when heating houses, official buildings and industries. Östergötland County in Sweden has transferred its use of fossil fuels to bio energy to a large extent. At the same time the industrial content of cleantech (environmental friendly techniques) has refined and there is a big interest in applying this new technique in the regions of this project. All have their opportunities to stimulate, often in small scale, the cleantech applications in the production and consumption of district heating with the forest resource as a base. The transfer to a greener society must to a great extent be built on local and regional initiatives why an exchange of transnational experiences is valuable. This project intent to provide facts and plan for real investments in the energy sector also combined with waste management where it is suitable. The whole chain from production to consumption of wood includes improved sustainability in forest management. The multisectoral approach is reflected in the work packages (Policies and planning - Business and wood sector - Technology and production) and cross border transfer of knowledge is important to realize coming investments. Decision makers in public sector, individuals (forest owners, households, students) and other stakeholders need a high level of awareness of the green society and they are important target groups for information activities. This project will result in; Regional action plans and strategies on wood energy effectiveness and complimentary planning tools (handbooks etc), case studies on investment calculations and procurements procedures of district heating, introduction and development of flexible energy system combining wood with other materials such as waste and straw, higher level of skill by transnational knowledge exchange in district heating management and operation as well as in forest utilisation. The partner composition is Tartu Region-Estonia, Vidzeme Region-Latvia and Östergötland County-Sweden (Lead Partner) and includes Estonia University of Lifesciences EE, Private Forest Center EE, Vidzeme Planning Region LV, State Forest Service LV, County Administrative Board Östergötland SE and Swedish Forest Agency SE. The activities will reach out to a lot of environmental organisations and companies. The partnership has earlier worked together in the EU project BSR Interreg lllB in the project called "Advantage Hardwood", dealing with deciduous forest. SIDA has supported co-operation between the regions for preparation of these application.

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