With a production output of around 3.4 million tonnes, Germany is the third biggest global producer of wood pellets.
yellow: capacity, red: production, blue: consumption; quantities in 1,000 t; 2022: estimate
© DEPI/Holzkurier
In 2021, pellet furnaces experienced an unprecedented upward trend in Germany. unprecedented dynamic. 86,500 new furnaces were installed. More than 61,000 of them are pellet central heating systems and water-heating pellet stoves with a power output of up to 50 kW, which are primarily used to replace oil heating systems in single and two-family homes. Additionally, 24,000 air-heating pellet stoves and nearly 1,200 larger boilers (> 50 kW) were installed last year. The latter are used for grid solutions or the generation of process heat in trade and industry.
“Pellet heating systems are based on tried-and-tested, efficient and low-emission technology and can be used universally. It is therefore suitable as a renewable option in any type of building,” Martin Bentele, Managing Director of the German Wood Fuel and Pellets Association (DEPV), emphasizes.
In 2021, the number of existing pellet-powered furnaces in Germany has reached 570,000 units, which helped avoid a total of more than 4 million tonnes of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the heating sector for the first time. According to DEPV, this makes pellets one of the most reliable and proven ways of reducing GHG emissions in the heating sector. Also, they are indispensable for reaching the climate goals of the German federal government.
New production output record
With a record production of 3.355 million tonnes of pellets, Germany is the undisputed leader in Europe and the third biggest global producer after the US and Canada. Last year, consumption amounted to 2.9 million tonnes of pellets. The foreign trade balance remains positive at around 450,000 tonnes. “The expected further increase in the construction of pellet plants will certainly change this and result in a decrease in exports,” Bentele explains. He thinks that German pellet producers have great responsibility for the supply of the domestic market. The DEPV expects more than 90,000 pellet furnaces to be installed next year and pellet production to reach 3.6 million tonnes.
The number of pellet furnaces keeps increasing year after year. In 2022, the DEPV expects 648,000 units to be installed.
yellow: pellet boilers > 50 kW (incl. CHP), blue: pellet boilers ≤ 50 kW (incl. water-heating pellet stoves), red: pellet stoves
© DEPI/Holzkurier
The further growth of the German pellet market is not something to be taken for granted. “Even though the political framework conditions for the heating market are still having a positive effect on the transition to cleaner energy, some headwind is expected for all combustion processes,” the DEPV Managing Director comments.
According to Bentele, the recent undifferentiated statements made by Germany’s environmental protection agency UBA are a negative example of how heat generation is now also coming under fire after traffic. Modern pellet heating systems are badmouthed under the pretext of concerns about air quality. Instead, the environmental protection agency should take steps to replace old, hand-fed heating systems which cause high emissions.
Bentele sees this as a transparent game which unfortunately is rarely questioned by the media. In 2020, the UBA itself put the emissions of pellet heating systems at 0.3% of the total German particulate emissions (particle size PM10). The DEPV demands politics to make a clear public commitment to the eligibility of modern wood energy for subsidies.
