Bioenergy boilers are usually located in small municipalities with a little technical expertise about the technical management and no data and information are available in order to justify and communicate the decision to switch to bioenergy. Contracts are no clear and the Catalan wood chip market is not transparent about the offered product (moisture, ashes; chip size, units of measurement, …)
ForestHEAT supports the biomass system management and provides, in a very clear and easy way, data related to consumption, supplies, CO2 avoided emissions, forest area managed through the use of bioenergy, graphs, reports.
ForestHEAT creates synergies in the forest biomass sector, as the wood-based energy makes sense almost in the 65% of Catalonia, where the forest management is essential for fire prevention and the preservation of forests and biodiversity. At the same time, bioenergy supports the mitigation and adaptation to climatic change, as it is a renewable and local energy source with a high thermal capacity and a stable price that contributes to the creation of local jobs.
This tool is a cross-platform application suitable for querying and editing data from any device with a data connection, whether from a desktop, tablet, or mobile device. Potential users are municipalities, bioenergy producers, energy service companies.
ForestHEAT was funded (around 20.000 €) by the county council of Girona (Diputació de Girona). Technical assistance and maintenance are in charge of Forest Sciences and Technology Center of Catalonia (one technical engineer).
At the present, ForestHEAT is used by 28 heating wood biomass systems, with a total consumption of more than 5.000 t of wood chip, equivalent to more than 11.000 MWh.
More municipalities are demanding to be users of ForestHEAT and the goal is to implement this app all around Catalonia.
