Major barriers to further development of biomass use for energy, especially in the residential sector, have been identified during the April meeting of the National Steering Committee established to the ACCESS project. The Committee, to which were invited all the key stakeholders in the field of RET for utilization of biomass and solar energy (representatives of relevant state institutions, producers, designers, and suppliers) came to these major conclusions:
- The current support scheme of the State Environmental Fund, via which the State provides subsidies for the systems for environment friendly heating and the preparation of hot water in the residential and public sectors, is not sufficient and satisfactory. There is no law guarantee for an applicant who asks for a subsidy to obtain this. Subsidies are provided after the realization of the new installation, 12 months from the end of the realization at the latest. In addition, subsidies are provided on a “first come, first serve” basis. According to the unknown number of incoming applications in a given year subsidies are provided only till the money assigned to this fund lasts.
- Furthermore, it is not possible to claim subsidy for projects for where local heat sources which use fossil fuels are all-at-once replaced by those firing biomass. The eventual support is in that case limited just to a pellet/briquette manufacturing unit which would secure supplies for them and not for the procurement of individual heat sources. Allegedly, this is not possible due to the fact that the Fund rules exclude the possibility that a project proponent which applies for the support is different from the final beneficiary which in case of heat source would be the local citizens. But this is not the same treatment like in projects for centralized systems which use biomass where it can be among eligible costs included also heat exchange stations in the individual households.
- There are no operating subsidies for environment friendly heat sources, i.e. no tax relieves for biofuels (tax relief was cancelled recently) or any other kind of subsidies for their purchase.
- There is the lack of special technical information in the media. Publications available on the foreign market are only occasionally translated into Czech and if so, these publications are too expensive to be bought by Czech scientists, engineers and developers.
- Public awareness and knowledge of environment friendly heat sources is very low and especially education in the schools should emphasize the advantages of these heat sources.
