The World Sustainable Energy Days Conference 2015 took place in Wels in Austria last week and Nicola Hopkins and Lucy Clark attended on behalf of LC Energy.
On Tuesday 24th, they took part in the Technical Site Visits “Wood Pellets and Wood Chips” which was a full day bus trip to various sites around the area. The high-light was a visit to the Sturmberger pellet production plant in Wels. This state-of-the -art pellet factory was opened in May 2014 with a capacity of 40 000 tons of pellets per annum, which are produced from local resources. Pellet delivery is mostly by their own pellet lorries and they have a computerised bagged pellet area for distribution by pallet.
They also visited a woodchip boiler for an industrial plant, a pellet biomass boiler for a district heating scheme and Windhager head office.
Day 2 was the European pellet conference at the Stadthalle in Wels. The main areas of discussion were ‘Changing market structures for pellets’; ‘How to make pellets more competitive’; ‘Getting the message across – Pellet Marketing and Branding’ and the ‘World Pellet Business and Technology Forum’. The day concluded with a Pellet Networking Platform.
Day 3 was entitled Pellet Market News Worldwide and included market overviews from Austria, Germany, Sweden, Baltic States, Russia, China and United Kingdom. The presentation from the United Kingdom was an update on the renewable heat incentive (RHI). There were also pellet Conference workshops and a pellet technology update.
The conference was an excellent way to quickly get an update on the growing wood pellet market across Europe and Asia, with several of the speakers coming from North America and Canada. The topics were of great interest and the only criticism is that the speakers did not have longer on the podium.
