8th International Conference on Biomass For Energy

Chairman's message

We cordially invite you to participate in the 8th International Conference on Biomass for Energy which will take place on September 25-26, 2012 in Kyiv, Ukraine.

The economic potential of biomass in Ukraine is estimated at 21 mtoe/yr. It can cover up to 15% of the country energy demand. Utilization of this potential may result in the annual replacement of about 6 bill m3 of natural gas by 2020. Now Ukraine uses up to 0.7 mtoe of biomass for energy production that covers about 0.5% of the country energy demand.

The past year had some positive as well as negative points for bioenergy sector of Ukraine. Drivers for bioenergy development were:

Continuing rise in natural gas price in Ukraine. The state budget for year 2012 envisages the highest price of natural gas on Ukraine's border of the existed prices before - 416 $/1000 m3.
Ukraine has "green" tariff on power produced from solid biomass (12,39 eurocents/kWh).

Obstacles for bioenergy development were:

President of Ukraine vetoed the law which introduced "green" tariff on power produced from biogas.
There are not enough stimuli for heat production from biomass. Ukraine continues subsidizing the internal prices of natural gas for the population and communal sector.

We hope that year 2012 will bring positive changes in Ukrainian legislation and tariff policy related to bioenergy development and that will enlarge the use of biomass for energy production.

The Conferences held in 2002-2011 aroused big interest in Ukraine and abroad. About 200 participants took part in each forum including 50 attendees from Europe and the USA.

We believe that the 8th Conference will bring together even more participants and facilitate practical realization of biomass-to-energy projects in Ukraine.

Conference Chairman,
Academician of NAS of Ukraine,
Anatoliy Dolinsky