Although there is a significant development potential for solar parks and wind farms, bioenergy covers more than 60% of renewable energy consumption in the European Union, this share is constantly increasing and is expected to grow in the future. This success can be explained due to the well-established, efficient technologies that support its use, as well as very competitive energy sources compared to fossil fuels: coal, oil and natural gas. The segment with the highest development potential in Europe is represented by the medium-capacity projects, which usually concern heating installations with capacities from 100 kW to 5 MW. This category covers plants installed in public buildings, such as schools, hospitals and swimming pools, as well as in private properties such as hotels, farms or small and medium-sized companies.
An important point of interest today is to promote the use of solid biomass or biogas and to create tools to encourage company managers or farmers to make the big transition from fossil fuel use to bioenergy. With this in mind, the Romanian Biomass and Biogas Association (ARBIO) and local entrepreneurs - including those in the field of energy and agriculture - participated in Bioenergy4Business, a project with European funding dedicated to capitalizing on the potential of companies wishing to use biomass and biogas as an energy source. The goal of B4B was to support and promote the substitution of fossil fuels used for heating production in European commercial sectors, by available bioenergy sources - industrial waste, forest biomass, straw and other agricultural products - in the collaborating countries and beyond. The partners included energy agencies, national biomass associations and research-oriented partners with specialised knowledge on biomass from Northern, Southern, Central and Eastern Europe (Finland, Denmark, the Netherlands, European Biomass Association, Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Croatia, Greece, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria and Ukraine).
The Bioenergy4Business project contributed to an increase in much-needed energy supply security through lower dependence on fossil fuels from unreliable and volatile sources. Target groups were, on one hand, owners and operators of industrial scale power plants for private or district heating. On the other hand, local farmers were very important because they play an elementary role in the production of raw materials used to create energy from organic sources. In order to stimulate investments in medium-sized heating projects, ARBIO organised, like all B4B partners, events aimed to reach the potential investors: international working visits, seminars and national workshops, site visits and info days. Activities were tailored to the needs of relevant actors for the identified market segments in the industrial, commercial, services and agriculture sectors.
