Trade associations in Germany's Capital Office for Bioenergy have criticised the revision of the leaflets of the Federal Funding for Energy and Resource Efficiency in the Economy (EEW) as 'insufficient'. These were presented by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK).
According to the associations, the current revision, for which a stakeholder participation process is currently underway, should be urgently used to implement improvements for biomass use in process heat.
Sandra Rostek said: "The BMWK's first proposal for the revision of the leaflets of the Federal Funding for Energy and Resource Efficiency in the Economy (EEW) once again misses a great opportunity to achieve real improvements in biomass use in process heat.
"It is precisely here that unnecessary restrictions on bioenergy as one of the most important building blocks for the expansion of renewable energies in industry in terms of climate protection but also security of supply must be removed."
The share of renewable energies in industrial process heat is currently only around 7% and is thus at the bottom of the heating transition.
At the same time, 19% of Germany's total energy consumption is used in this area, making process heat in industry one of the largest energy consumers in Germany.
"It should be clear that we will miss the goals of the heat transition if we do not better address the area of industrial process heat. First and foremost, the sharp reduction in the subsidy quotas for biomass must be withdrawn," Rostek added.
In the last amendment to the EEW in February, the previous subsidy quotas for all renewable energies were lowered - but particularly drastic for biomass plants.
For small companies, the subsidy has been reduced to 40%, for medium-sized companies to 30% and for large companies to 20%.
For other renewable energies, the subsidy rates were reduced by a total of only 5 percentage points compared to the previous subsidy.
"But especially for small and medium-sized companies, the fuel switch is often one of the largest investments in the company's history. In addition to CO2 neutrality, it is crucial that the energy source meets the economic and technical requirements of the companies.
"Due to the high investment costs for biomass plants, the reduction in subsidy quotas in conjunction with the massive restrictions already in place will lead to a significant worse position and harm the industrial process heat transition," Rostek explained.
In addition, according to the associations, the restrictions on biomass that have already been imposed in the past must be abolished.
Finally, the restrictions on the promotion of new biogas plants are so restrictive that in the foreseeable future no subsidy event will probably no longer be claimed, according to the associations.
"For example, in order to make CHP heat from biogas plants usable, which can neither be used internally nor transported away via a heating network, heating concepts in which the heat is transported to consumers via mobile heat storage systems should be promoted in the future," concluded Rostek.
German trade association says process heat promotion must increasingly rely on biomass
