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Project management group will meet twice a year (in Finland, Spain, Italy, Austria, France and Belgium). Steering Committee will meet once a year and these meetings are organised concurrently with the project management group meetings. Study tours and external company presentations are included in the meeting schedule.
Kick-off meeting (first management group meeting) was organised on 21st and 22nd of February 2006 in Jyväskylä Finland. The meeting was followed by one day technical tour. The tour program included visits to Finndomo Oy (leading manufacturer of single-family houses in the Nordic countries), Bioenergy Development Centre managed by JUA, Ariterm Oy (pellet boiler manufacturer) and Honkarakenne Oyj (world leader in log homes).
Second management group meeting was organised on 18-19th of October 2006 in Valladolid, Spain. The second half-yearly meeting was organised along Expobioenergia’06. After the meeting it was time to visit the exhibition and learn about Spanish biomass market. Besides Expobioenergia’06 – exhibition 1st International Bioenergy Congress was organised and Vivienda –fair. From BioHousing-team three experts made a presentation at the Congress. Dr. Dan Asplund, the vice-president of AEBIOM, presented pellet production in large scale in Europe. Dr. Christian Rakos from Austrian ProPellets Association presented “Austrian experiences in the introduction of Wood Pellets as sustainable fuel”. Mr. Francisco Puente-Salve from ESCAN, S.A. presented “Biomass applied to buildings and houses with some case examples”.
Third management group meeting was organised on 19-20th of April 2007 in Orleans, France. The meeting was organised along Bois Energie 2007 exhibition. BioHousing-project was presented at the stand organised by Finnish bioenergy actors. The webbased catalogue of heating related equipment was launched at the exhibition. Biomasse Normandie was responsible in presenting the catalogue to visitors. Information leaflets about the content of the catalogue (in English and French) were distributed at the exhibition. ofi transported the miniature model of the Energy Cabin (modular heating unit) from Austria to the exhibition. It attracted a lot of people and there were many questions and long discussions about its operation.
Fourth management group meeting was organised 5-6th November 2007 in Vienna, Austria. The meeting was followed by one day technical tour which had two topics. One topic was Energy Cabin (http://www.energycabin.com/) and the other was Blue Lagoon. First Energy Cabin was installed at the beginning of year 2005. The cabins’ are either wood- or steel-containers.We visited two sites where Energy Cabin is installed. The first one was a private house (a mayor’s house) in Gleisdorf with 15 kW boiler. The house is very modern and the cabin was designed to fit architecture.The other site was hotel Maiers in Söchau with 350 kW boiler. This was the largest installation in Austria, in Ireland there are larger cabins. This cabin were constructed from four steel-containers. The afternoon visit was for Blue Lagoon which is a constant house exhibition area. The operation started 15 years ago and at the moment there are about 80 houses from 47 manufacturers on view. Every 3-6 years house manufacturers replace the house models in order to show all the time the most wanted models. the area is very well-known among house builders in Austria. 75% of the house builders have visited the exhibition area. People are also interested in heating systems and therefore next year a new area will be built where all the heating systems will be promoted.
Fifth management group meeting was organised 14-15th April 2008 in Florence, Italy. The meeting was followed by a visit to an estate in Borgo San Lorenzo, north from Florence. The owner of the estate invested in a Biocompact plug & play system a couple of years ago (www.ecotecnologie.it) . Earlier the estate used GLP (liquid propane) as a fuel and the fuel costs were annually over 20.000 €. Now the fuel costs are only one fourth (5.000 €) as the fuel is wood chips (60-70 EUR/ton). The investment costs of Biocompact system (110 kW) was 50.000 €. The owner of the estate has been very pleased with the new system. The inventor the Biocompact system is developing a larger system. In this new system there would be two biomass boilers (each 150 kW) and a large fuel storage (50 m2). When the heat demand is lower then only one boiler is operating. When the heat demand is higher, both biomass boilers are operating.
Sixth management group meeting was organised on 29th October 2008 in Brussels, Belgium. Day before the meeting the "Success Stories of Biomass Heating in Small Scale -seminar was organised. General feeling was that the seminar participants were very satisfied with the different topics presented and had good opportunities to exchange opinions after the presentations and during the coffee break.
First Steering Committee meeting was organised on 18-19thOctober 2006 in Valladolid, Spain, parallel with the second management group meeting. Dr. Dan Asplund, the vice-president of AEBIOM, participated in the meeting. AEBIOM will disseminate the results of the project to its members.
Second Steering Committee meeting was organised on 5-6th November 2007 in Vienna, Austria, parallel with the fourth management group meeting. Newly nominated project officer, mr. Damien Cocard participated in the meeting.
Third Steering Committee meeting was organised on 29th October 2008 in Brussels, Belgium, parallel with the sixth management group meeting.
Photo: Project team visiting Energy Cabin in November 2007
Photo: Project team in Florence in April 2008
Photo: Our team in the last meeting in Brussels in October 2008