Hands on District Heating Workshop 2011
In Austria Feb. 21st – Mar. 4th
Introduction: The annual unused biomass in Canada has an astronomic heating value and if only a very small portion is used, it has the potential to create in excess of 100 000 jobs.
In Austria, a country with 8 million inhabitants and only 84 000 sq km, the thermal biomass use employs 33 000 people.
Developments: In a recent Austrian Biomass district heating mission to BC a strong interest was shown by municipalities, school- and hospital- boards to make use of biomass to cut costs and create jobs in the area.
Objectives: This 10 day workshop covered theory on a wide range of aspects related to district heating and enabled Butler Concsultants to go hands on with boilers and heating systems, to learn about possibilities for cost and emission reduction, chances for job creation and problem solving. It offered a fair number of site visits with the opportunity to discuss the economics and why the projects where done in this particular way. The workshop enabled us to consider all issues related to a biomass district heating project, evaluate them, collect all the necessary data and do rough technical and economic calculations of projects.
It put us in touch with organisations experienced in financing such projects.
The workshop enabled us to gain from the European know-how and help to avoid mistakes.