With 740,000 t, German producers of wood pellets set a production record in the third quarter of 2019. Compared with the same period of the previous year (608,000 t), the sector achieved an increase of 21.7%. Thus more than 2 million t of pellets were already produced in Germany this year. Extended capacities at many locations and the good supply of raw materials make these quantities possible.
The fact that there is a lot of drought-induced wood damage on the market is shown by the significantly higher proportion of non-sawable roundwood as raw material for pellets. Almost 90% are still pressed directly from sawdust. Germany has been the country with the highest pellet production in Europe for years and is only surpassed by North America (USA and Canada) worldwide.
The low installation rate of pellet heating systems so far this year means that only about 80% of domestic produced pellets are used in Germany. Due to the forthcoming ban on oil heating, it is expected an increase in the use of pellets for individual heating systems and heating networks – in addition to other climate-friendly heat solutions such as heat pumps or solar thermal systems.
94.2% of all pellet heating operators are satisfied with their system, as a survey by the German Pellet Institute of more than 6,000 people shows. 85.3% of them would also recommend the pellet heating.
Tthis is due to the stable low operating costs: over the past ten years, pellets have had a 30% price advantage over heating oil and natural gas. The introduction of a CO2 price from 2021 will support this development.
Post time: Jan-05-2020