The EU-project greenGain is looking for solutions to strengthen the energy production of woody and herbaceous biomass feedstock from landscape conservation and maintenance work (LCMW) carried out in the public interest. The scope of biomass used is generated during the maintenance of roadsides, watercourses, power lines, areas like parks and cemeteries and the conservation work of recreation areas like nature reserves, but also from private gardens. The main target groups are regional and local players, who are responsible for maintenance and conservation work and for the biomass residue management in their regions. Moreover, the focus will be on service providers - including farmers, forest owners, NGOs, energy providers and consumers.
When working with LCMW material it has to be considered that the supply is spatially scattered and has seasonal fluctuations. Also the quality of the feedstock is often poor and pre-treatments as sieving or drying are necessary. In many cases the actors involved in the LCMW encounter financial and technical constraints, unclear responsibilities and legal requirements of waste management and a general lack of information on the biomass.
Still, this feedstock is an attractive potential energy source. With the energetic utilisation of this biomass a by-product of regular management of public areas contributes to local energy cycles and renewable energy production. Also the selling of the feedstock or the thereof produced energy, present a possibility for financial compensation of maintenance costs.
The project provide knowledge on local availability of this feedstock and know-how on issues ranging from logistics to storage and sustainable conversion pathways for the transformation of this feedstock to renewable energy. GreenGain aims to raise awareness of this still widely underused, inefficiently used or even unused biomass resource and to increase the public acceptance of its collection and usage for the production of heat and electricity.
The three year project which started in January 2015 was supported by the Horizon 2020 European program to foster research and innovative solutions in the EU. Eight partners from Germany, Italy, Spain and Czech Republic co-operate with regional stakeholders from seven model regions to reach the following goals:
• trigger the exploitation and coordinate as well as support the market uptake of currently underused biomass sources from LCMW for energy purposes
• mobilize biomass not competing with food and feed production
• assess and develop planning, harvesting, transport, pre-treatment, measuring, energy conversion and financial frameworks
• support local governance processes, develop tools for an active & supportive citizenship and realise a good practices know-how platform
The action will help private and public actors and stakeholders to develop energy projects supporting the commitments of the EU2020 – 2030. The results will be published in reports and good practice databases on categorized supply chains with measurable data like time, energy and financial consumption. Since the resources in question derive from operations done in public interest or even by public order, the project has also the objective to describe the legal and overall societal framework and the predominant goals of each specific landscape or infrastructural element, from which the biomass is obtained.
