Heating with biomass generates savings of up to 66% compared to heating oil

The stability of biomass prices, in stark contrast to the progressive increase in the cost of heating oil, which has risen by 35% in the last two years, has led to a significant increase in the savings that the use of biomass as a heating fuel represents, which at the moment can be up to 66% compared to the costs of heating oil.

According to Javier Díaz, president of the Spanish Association for the Energy Valorization of Biomass (Avebiom), “we are not talking about theoretical possibilities, but about real and immediate savings for families and institutions that already use biomass to heat their homes or collective buildings; and we are talking about a certain expectation for those who plan to replace diesel with biomass in the short term, because the latest increases in the price of oil can no longer be considered as mere cyclical upticks.”.

According to calculations by Avebiom, the cost of 2.35 kilograms of wood chips delivered to homes, equivalent in energy to one liter of heating oil, represents a saving of 66% (that is, eur0.486 per liter of heating oil). The price of heating oil has risen from eur0.547 per liter in May 2016 to eur0.741 recorded on May 15th.

If olive pits are used, at a price of 2.19 kilograms (the energy equivalent of one liter of diesel), the savings are eur0.362 per liter of diesel (49%). And if the biomass used is pellets, the equivalent cost (1.96 kilograms) represents a savings of 38% ( eur0.280 per liter of diesel).

The latest data from the Avebiom Price Index, referring to the last quarter of 2017, reflects the stability of the price of wood pellets, olive pits, and wood chips in their different formats for sale to the end consumer (in bags or in bulk, delivered to homes by tanker trucks). In the case of wood pellets, which are currently the most in-demand fuel, the price of a 15-kilogram bag has decreased by an average of 3.37% over the last three years.