1. etaflorence  renewableenergies
The Role of Bioenergy Trade
to Meet the Italian RE
targets
Maurizio Cocchi
Workshop “International Trade
of Bioenergy Commodities”
Rome 21 October 2010
etaflorence  renewableenergies
Rome – 21 October 2010

2. etaflorence  renewableenergies
WHO WE ARE
Etaflorence is an engineering and consultancy firm which is active in the
field of renewable energy since 1994.
WHAT WE DO
promotion, development, design and integration of renewable energy
systems
Planning, design and engineering of RE systems
 Consultancy to public and private organizations
 Participation to EU and international projects
Organization of conferences and events
(i.e. European Biomass Conference and Exhibition)
Member of IEA Bioenergy Task 40
etaflorence  renewableenergies
Rome – 21 October 2010

3. The Italian Bioenergy sector: Biomass Heating and Power
Biomass power plants
(source GSE and Terna statistics 2009 elab.)
53 plants operating in 2009
27 plants producing only electricity
299 MWe installed capacity
26 plants working in cogeneration (CHP)
174 MWe installed capacity
Total installed capacity 473 MWe
Annual solid biomass demand: 3‐4 Million t/y
•Biomass derived from domestic forestry and agricultural sources but
also from imports
•Share of imported biomass (PKS – Woodchips – olive cake) estimated
in the range of “some” hundreds of thousands tons/y
Sources: ITABIA– 2008,GSE 2010 – Terna 2010
etaflorence  renewableenergies
Rome – 21 October 2010

4. The Italian Bioenergy sector: Biomass Heating and Power
District heating plants
•200 plants operating
•400 MWth installed capacity
•750 km DH network length
•14‐16.000 users reached
•450.000 tons/y annual biomass demand
•100 Mil. € turnover
•District heating plants located mainly in Northern Italy
•Biomass derived mainly from local forestry and wood
industries
•Woodchips are the main feedstock
etaflorence  renewableenergies
Rome – 21 October 2010

5. The Italian Bioenergy sector: Biomass Heating and Power
Residential Heating
1.000.000 pellet stoves (< 15 kW)
+ 10% sale in 2009 – steady growth (7‐
10%/y) foreseen in the next years
The Italian pellet market No. of pellet producers
Italy is one of the largest pellet markets for
residential heating
accounts for 10‐12% of the EU pellet market and
9% of EU pellet production
Production: 700.000‐750.000 t
Consumption: 0.9‐1.2 mil. tons
Import: 250.000 t 25% of demand
Austria – Germany ‐ Eastern European countries main suppliers of
imported pellets
etaflorence  renewableenergies
Rome – 21 October 2010

6. The Italian Bioenergy Sector: Biodiesel
In 2009 : (Source: PoliMi and Assocostieri)
15 operating plants + 4 under construction
2.3Million tons of production capacity (3° in EU behind Germany and France)
1.17 mil. Tons distributes
700.000 tons production
464.000 tons imports
90.000 tons exports
(source: Assocostieri)
Roughly 1/3 of biodiesel is imported (from USA‐Germany‐NL‐France)
Feedstock for biodiesel (rapeseed‐soybean) are also largely imported
(France – Germany – Spain, Argentina – Canada – South America)
2008 (Jan‐Oct) source: F.O.Lichts
etaflorence  renewableenergies
Rome – 21 October 2010

7. Italian Bioenergy Sector: Bioliquids
2009 (source GSE) Expected new bioliquid plants (dec. 2009)
•113 plants operating
250 units
•600 MWe installed capacity
•95% running on pure vegetal oil
Estimated demand of 1 million tons of pure
vegetal oil – largely imported
wind bioliquids
•Significant growth expected in this sector
Estimated new installed capacity from
but bioliquid plants (2009)
1.500 MWe
•Need to deal with RED sustainability
requirements
wind bioliquids
etaflorence  renewableenergies
Rome – 21 October 2010

8. Italian Bioenergy Sector: Bioethanol
Only 2 large producers of bioethanol for transports with
production capacity 215.000 t /y
CAVIRO: 43.000 t/y
I.M.A.: 172.00 t/y
Production in 2009: 105.000 tons
Bioethanol almost entirely converted into ETBE and used
as an additive
Uncertainties in the regulatory framework have negatively
affected the development of this sector
Many oil companies in Italy import ETBE directly
(Source: PoliMi – Energy strategy Group)
etaflorence  renewableenergies
Rome – 21 October 2010

9. Forecasts Biofuels in transports in Italian nREAP
Contribution in the transport sector
2010 2020
Bioethanol/ETBE 148 ktoe 600 ktoe
(imported) 19 100 (16%)
Biodiesel 868 ktoe 1.880 ktoe
(imported) 73 800 (42%)
Only referred to imports of biofuels as such not including imports of raw material
A relevant share of biofuels will derive from imports
Biodiesel
Bioethanol/ETBE
etaflorence  renewableenergies
Rome – 21 October 2010

10. Forecasts of Bioenergy contribution in Italian nREAP
Expected contribution to total final energy consumption
Solid Biomass 2010 2020
2.206 ktoe 5.254 ktoe + 138%
Biomass
(residential heating) 1.471 ktoe 3.620 ktoe + 146%
Bioliquids 7 ktoe 150 ktoe + 2042%
Contribution to the heating sector
Biomass
Heat pumps
Geothermal
etaflorence  renewableenergies
Rome – 21 October 2010

11. Forecasts of Bioenergy contribution in Italian nREAP
Contribution in the eletricity sector
2010 2020
Solid Biomass 4.785 GWh 7.900 GWh + 65%
Bioliquids 1.758 GWh 4.860 GWh + 176%
Gross electricity production
Hydro
Wind
biomass
bioliquids
etaflorence  renewableenergies
Rome – 21 October 2010

12. Most of the Italian bioenergy sectors are already involved
in trade of biomass or refined products
Some factors influencing trade of biomass in Italy
•Cost competitiveness of some imported raw materials or biofuels
compared to domestic raw materials
•Need to integrate discontinuous availability of domestic raw
materials, fragmentation of market operators (i.e. pellet industry) local
territory not always ready to supply large volumes of biomass
•Uncertain/unstable regulatory framework causes:
delaying the development of the domestic biofuels supply
chains and infrastructures (i.e. bioethanol‐biofuels)
forcing operators to export their products
etaflorence  renewableenergies
12
Rome – 21 October 2010

13. Conclusions
etaflorence  renewableenergies
Rome – 21 October 2010

14. etaflorence  renewableenergies
Thanks for your attention
Contact: maurizio.cocchi@etaflorence.it
etaflorence  renewableenergies
Roma – 14 Gennaio 2009

15. The Italian Bioenergy Sector: Biogas
•240 operating plants in 2009 (source GSE)
•157 MWe installed capacity
•Growing interest in the agricultural sector
•Potential to contribute significantly to the
share of RE from bioenergy
•Feedstock: sewage sludge, organic waste,
manure, energy crops
Not affected by trade
etaflorence  renewableenergies
Rome – 21 October 2010

16. Italian Forecast Document according to art. 4 of
Renewable Energy Directive
Estimation of “Required use of means other than domestic
production to achieve 17% target in 2020”
“…need for a ‘foreign’ contribution of
around 4.0 Mtoe, made up of:
‐2.9 Mtoe from biofuels produced abroad
or produced in Italy from imported
biomass
Published on EC DG Energy
‐1.1 Mtoe from foreign contributions in Transparency Platform
various forms (e.g. electricity imports,
joint projects with EU and non‐EU
countries, statistical transfer)… “
etaflorence  renewableenergies
16
Rome – 21 October 2010