2023-09-07 08:25:42
Wood heating systems were generously subsidized for a long time. Now a change in thinking is beginning – because carbon dioxide is also produced here. Is that in a healthy relationship to environmental and climate protection? A fact check.
Berlin.
Compared to oil or gas as a fossil fuel for heating, wood has a better reputation. Some consider it ecological and carbon neutral. But is that true? A fact check.
Claim: Heating with wood is climate-neutral.
Rating: Rather not.
facts
Around 1.1 million households in Germany use logs, wood pellets or wood chips in boilers as the primary energy source for heating the entire living space. So according to the Federal Ministry of Agriculture. In addition, there are around 11.2 million so-called single room fireplaces as additional wood heating systems. These are mainly fireplaces and tiled stoves. According to the ministry, a total of 65 percent of the heat from renewable energies in Germany has so far been obtained primarily from wood.
But burning wood also releases carbon dioxide. The climate balance can only be described as balanced if a corresponding amount of wood grows back promptly and absorbs sufficient carbon dioxide from the air, according to the Federal Environment Agency (UBA). The emissions from felling, transport and processing would also have to be included in this balance.
However, depending on the tree species, it can take several decades for wood to grow back. This is a time factor that could not always be enough to compensate for the growing need for wood for heating. After Information from the environmental protection organization Greenpeace the rapid consumption of firewood meanwhile produces more greenhouse gases than can be bound by growth in forests at the same time.
The Wood Energy Association argues On the other hand, for heating with wood pellets, among other things, residual wood is used, which would otherwise rot in the forest and naturally release just as much CO2. However, this is (unlike burning) a process that takes a long time. And besides, about the Information from the German Wildlife Foundation According to this, the forest ecosystem is essentially dependent on the occurrence of old and dead wood.
Around 500 scientists from all over the world are therefore critical of increasing wood burning for energy generation: As early as 2021, they wrote an open letter to governments, including the European Commission: Even if wood replaces fossil fuels, burning it will increase global warming. For every kilowatt hour of heat or electricity produced, burning wood probably releases two to three times as much carbon into the air as using coal or gas. The researchers are therefore calling for wood combustion to no longer be described as climate-neutral.
Claim: Wood heating systems are more environmentally friendly than oil and gas.
Rating: Hardly durable.
facts
The Federal Environment Agency is now speaking out against the installation of wood heating systems in new buildings for ecological reasons. “Meanwhile, wood heating accounts for more than 20 percent of all particulate matter emissions. This is roughly the same as emissions from road traffic,” says UBA President Dirk Messner. The main focus is on burning wood in private households – for example in the fireplace.
According to the UBA, the gases methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O), a nitrogen oxide, are produced when burning wood in addition to the lung-damaging fine dust and toxic carbon monoxide. Methane contributes 25 times and nitrous oxide 298 times more to global warming than the same amount of carbon dioxide.
Whether wood makes sense for heating also depends on its origin. Many experts agree that waste products from sustainable wood such as sawdust, bark or branches from the region or neighboring countries are unproblematic because they can hardly be used for anything else.
This is different with whole tree trunks. Instead of burning them in biomass plants, for example, it makes more ecological sense to process them into durable furniture or roof beams, for example. The Nature Conservation Union Germany however, suspects that many trees in Germany end up as firewood, for example in the form of pellets imported from the USA.
Claim: Subsidies for wood heating systems make sense.
Evaluation: A rethinking has begun.
facts
The approximately 500 scientists agree in their open letter to governments: the burning of wood should no longer be subsidized for climate protection reasons, it says there.
From the According to the Federal Environment Agency, Wood heating systems should no longer be financially supported in order not to create false incentives in the medium to long term. But that is exactly what has happened in Germany so far. According to the UBA, between 2015 and 2019 around 21,000 wood heating systems were funded nationwide through the market incentive program for renewable energies. With further improved funding conditions, there were already around 95,000 in 2020. Biomass heating systems, which often also burn wood products, are still eligible – albeit to a lesser extent than in the past.
According to the UBA, wood-fired heating systems should have efficient boilers. Compliance is checked by the chimney sweep trade. By using dust separators, for example, very low pollutant emissions can be achieved with pellet boilers. Pellet stoves and pellet boilers are generally considered to have a lower impact on the environment than other types of wood burning.
The Association of Towns and Municipalities wants to continue to rely on wood for the energy transition. Pellet heating systems have been subsidized by the federal government for years, and many municipalities use them to heat schools, town halls and administrative buildings. Private households also rely on it. It is said that what was state-funded yesterday cannot be the work of the devil today. If wood heating systems become obsolete, forest owners see the sustainable forest care and thus also the marketing of residual wood for firewood in danger.
The Association of Wood Energy considers the raw material to be indispensable in the mix of wind and hydropower, solar energy, geothermal energy and biomass. Because wood is one of the few resources that can be used to provide energy independently and in a decentralized manner at any time of the day or night.
At the end of March, however, the EU indicated a reversal in the subsidization of biomass in its Renewable Energy Directive. The preliminary agreement provides for stricter sustainability criteria for biomass – and that means primarily wood at the moment. (dpa)
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