Extensive research on the Greek Pellet Market was conducted in the context of the GREEN-Agrichains Project. Critical results of interest were presented in the context of the 14th Pellets Industry Forum that was co-organized by Solar Promotion GmbH, the European Pellet Council, and the European Biomass Association (AEVIOM) in Munich, June 11-12, 2015.
Following, the associated files are provided:
Presentation at the 14th Pellets Industry Forum, Title: “Country report – Development and trends in 2015. Greece”, published in the Conference Proceedings (pdf file), Toka Agorasti, Senior Post-Doctoral Researcher.
Abstract: The pellet market has been developing rapidly in Greece over the last three years. The imposed government austerity measures due to the deep economic recession of the country resulted in higher taxes for fossil heating fuels, but also in considerably reduced average national income. These facts led to a reduction of 725,000 households (18% of total households) in using oil central heating systems in 2013, with consumers seeking for alternative economical heating solutions including pellet heating systems. Following the lift of restrictions for burning biomass in urban areas (for more than 40% of the Greek residences), around 20,000 households used pellets for heating in 2012, while the average monthly consumption of biomass in general (including fuel-wood, pellets, olive kernel etc.) increased by 20.7% until 2013. Today, estimates on annual pellet consumption range from 70,000 to 100,000 tons, while the potential of market growth appears to be significant. In addition, over twelve (12) small and medium pellet producers are currently operating in Greece with a total nominal capacity of 130,000 tons per year. Production rates though remain quite low, mainly due to the lack of raw material availability and the increased competition from neighbouring countries. More specifically, import flows from 16 countries were recorded in 2014 with 60.5% of pellets being imported by Bulgaria and 19.5% from Romania.
Notably, this unexpected vertical market growth resulted in an uncontrolled mass consumption of poor quality pellets and non-certified heating systems leading to high emissions of micro-particles and nitrogen oxides, as well as to end-user problems. The consumers’ financial benefit of using pellets for heating compared to oil, the affordable ‘pay as you go’ manner of pellets supply to households, the emerging opportunities for entrepreneurship and job creation, as well as the activation and synergies of pellet market involved stakeholders could potentially foster further both pellet consumption and production in the country during the following years. However, certain obstacles that still hinder the adoption of pellet heating systems by the Greek households need to be tackled. These include mainly the lack of attractive financial incentives for the purchase of pellet boilers/stoves, the inadequate or often erroneous information of consumers on the new technology attributes, and the domestic pellet production bottlenecks.
Results of Questionnaire Research for Pellets Production in Greece, Part of Diploma Thesis, Title: “The Pellet Market in Greece: Prospects for Development”, Mavridis Dimitris, Graduate Student, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, July 2015. (pdf file in Greek)