Biomass Heating Plant

Technical parameters

Since 2000, Hostětín disposes a central heating plant (732 kW) using renewable resources of energy. It is fuelled by wood chips of waste wood from nearby sawmills (500-600 t/year), and is connected to 69 of 81 homes in Hostětín by means of a 2,4 km long distribution line.

Effects of the model project

The heating plant produces about 3 500 GJ of heat in one heating season and saves 1 500 tons of CO2 per year. This means that fuel payments do not go to international gas companies, electric or coal-fired power stations, but to the municipality and local entrepreneurs. Also, the air in Hostětín is much cleaner than before.

Financing

This unique investment was financed by the State Environmental Fund of the Czech Republic, a Dutch grant within one of the international mechanisms reducing CO2 emissions in accordance with the Kyoto protocol - joint implementation, the Czech Energy Agency, the municipality, and the residents connected to the heating plant.

The investment in the heating plant has been complemented by thermal insulation of the houses which the citizens perform gradually at their own expense (9 houses were thermally insulated in Hostětín by the year 2006).