Wood fuels have significantly increased their lead in space heat generation over other fuels in recent years. This was the result of a new survey by Statistics Austria. Almost 40 percent of Lower Austrian households heated with logs, pellets or wood chips in the 2021/22 heating season. If you include the district heating generated in biomass heating and wood-fired power plants, this share increases to 42.9 percent. At around 26 percent, natural gas is the second most common method of heating in Lower Austria, with heating oil in third place at around 14 percent.
According to Franz Titschenbacher, President of the Austrian Biomass Association, the fact that the use of wood fuels in individual furnaces increased by around five percent across Lower Austria in the 2021/22 period compared to 2019/20 (nationwide by nine percent) is due to various reasons. On the one hand, 2021 was a comparatively cool year, but on the other hand, demand for wood heating and wood fuel increased sharply due to the war in Ukraine.
Franz Titschenbacher, the President of the Austrian Biomass Association, calls for the further expansion and renovation of wood-fired central heating systems.
Photo:
Fischer
“Energy wood from local, sustainable forestry provides climate-friendly and crisis-proof energy. The numbers show how popular wood heating systems are in Austria,” says Titschenbacher. Last year, a record number of 31,000 modern wood-fired central heating systems were sold throughout Austria, but sales figures fell again this year due to general inflation. “This is slowing down the energy transition, although we urgently need it to accelerate,” adds the biomass expert.
Individual wood furnaces are the most common “primary heating system” in Lower Austria
Around 197,000 households in Lower Austria use individual wood-fired furnaces (boilers or stoves) as their primary heating system. In addition, there are 190,000 households with natural gas heating as their primary heating system and 135,000 Lower Austrian households with a district heating connection. With 83,000 active oil heating systems, Lower Austria ranks second in the federal state comparison when it comes to the number of oil heating systems. When it comes to gas heating systems, Lower Austria is also in second place behind Vienna with 190,000 units.
Since around 350,000 wood-fired central heating systems nationwide are older than 25 years, Titschenbacher suggests a modernization program for them. “By replacing outdated systems with modern, low-emission wood heating systems, fine dust emissions could be reduced by around 85 percent and wood consumption by up to 40 percent. The amount of wood saved is available for the necessary replacement of fossil heating systems in order to advance the energy transition,” he emphasizes.
According to the Biomass Association, the age of the existing wood and tiled stoves is likely to be even older. There is also a need for renovation in the existing boilers of local heating systems.
