Download the Case Study:
English Deutsch Español Français Italiano Polski

Summary

The municipality of Karlstad in the central part of Sweden is striving to become free from fossil fuels. One of the measures to achieve this, implemented between 2004 and 2007, was to give contribution to households converting from oil to biofuel (pellets) for heating. The target audience was households in areas where there are no plans for district heating. The measure resulted in a reduction of the use of oil by 391 m³. The measure doesn't involve any new technique or new methods. Cooperation with the University of Karlstad will however create conditions for development of new technique and new working methods for both production and use of pellets. The project is a good way to show people that biofuels is a satisfactory choice to other heating alternatives.

Results

• The conversion from oil to biofuel resulted in a decrease in the use of oil in the municipality with 391 m³ which was 65 % of the objective.
• The long term environmental effect of the measure is reduced emissions of fossil fuel CO₂, partly because of the conversion from oil, but also due to the shorter transports since pellets is produced locally.
• An increased effect of occupation is reached both locally and regionally among manufacturing and distribution of pellets and also among the manufacturers and installers of boilers and burners.
• Another effect is that companies in the pellets industry, in a larger extent, are working together and offer overall solutions, which considerable simplifies for the consumers.
• Because of the municipality demand regarding P- labelling (or similar) on boilers and burners for contribution granted households, the quality and also the environmental performance on the installations are improved.
• The P-labelling is a quality labelling that put demand on emissions, efficiency, security and operation.

Lessons learned and repeatability

The preparations for the project worked well. This included development of application forms, reasoning with the legal expert of the municipality so that nothing should go wrong in the money contribution process and to make sure that all decisions were made politically by the environmental committee.

The contact with the applicants worked well. By making it easy from the beginning it is easier further on! The use of media to spread information to the inhabitants was very fruitful. The energy evenings arranged were also a good way to reach the inhabitants.

Something that didn€t work so well at a few occasions was the administration. The applications were received in one place and sent to another place where they were handled. The payment took place at a third place and so on. Sometimes the communication didn€t work so well and the applicants had to wait unnecessarily long for their contribution.

One negative side of contributions is that the market for biofuel installers gets very irregular, but the project was a good way to show people that bio fuels is a satisfactory choice to other heating alternatives The project can be repeated by other actors. It is important though to prepare everything properly and to put a lot of work into the project.