Italian partners from the Energy Management Agency of Friuli Venezia Giulia organized a local event with relevant stakeholders to share good practices on how to produce heat from wood biomass in a sustainable way. The event was held in the village of Arta Terme on the 9th of July 2021
Roundtable on QM in Arta Terme, Friuli Venezia Giulia
It starts from an assumption, music and heat have the same origin, the forest!
This explains the scenography of the event that on the morning of Friday 9 July, in Arta Terme, saw on one side the FratelliLeita harpsichord and on the other a wheelbarrow with wood chips inside, respectively the highest and the lowest level of the correct "cascading" use of wood.
At the hall of the Hotel Savoia in Piazza Roma, kindly made available by the Municipality of Arta Terme, the meeting "QM Impianti termici a legna" was held, focused on the QM quality management system, which the Energy Management Agency of Friuli Venezia Giulia region (APE FVG) is importing from Austria and Switzerland within the project ENTRAIN (2019-2022), contextualizing it to the regional and national territory. This system allows quality management during all phases of planning, financing, design, construction, commissioning, optimization and management of district heating plants powered by renewable energy sources.
The event saw the involvement of local stakeholders operating in the various areas that revolve around the production of heat from wood biomass, namely forest planning, forest use, suppliers of wood chips, design, administrators and officials of the PA, ESCOs, technology producers, air quality and also communication.
Currently in Friuli Venezia Giulia and in Italy in general, the construction of a wood biomass district heating system does not have a quality standard to refer to, despite the individual components of this complex system (woods, wood chips, technical components, producers, plant designers and managers) have their own certification standards and technical regulations to refer to. This lack is one of the main causes of the construction of unsustainable plants in the medium and long term, both from an economic and environmental point of view. The "QM Impianti termici a legna" therefore represents the element capable of filling this gap, guaranteeing the success of public investments. This thesis was argued through 24 interviews with regional and national stakeholders collected in the video QM - district heating - interviews [IT] whose trailer was presented during the meeting. In the trailer the contribution of Marco Bussone, president of UNCEM (National Union of Municipalities and Mountain Bodies) reaffirms the importance of the QM standard in giving quality, limiting emissions and allowing public and private bodies to have better and sustainable plants, both economically and environmentally, in the long term.
The initial greeting from Luigi Gonano, mayor of Arta Terme, was followed by technical interventions Wood Biomass: an indispensable resource, if well used by Matteo Mazzolini, director of APE FVG, QM: why adopt it in Friuli Venezia Giulia? and QM: monitoring and optimization by Francesco Locatelli, APE FVG. The engineer Antonio Nonino, president of Rassegna Tecnica FVG then presented the volume "Projects and works" as evidence of the 50 years of work of the prestigious magazine whose latest issue, containing the article written by APE FVG "Heat from biomass woods and energy transition: opportunities for FVG planners”, was kindly made available to the participants.
Samuele Giacometti of APE FVG, moderator of the round table, continued by giving the floor to the stakeholders to share and elaborate on the good practices and ideas taken from the video interviews, concerning the strategic issues for wood biomass DH plants such as planning, efficiency, quality, savings and profitability guaranteed by the QM system.
The following interventions animated the roundtable: Simone Peruzzi, mayor of Dogna, Sebastiano Cacciaguerra, director of the Energy Service of the Autonomous Region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, Matteo Mazzolini, director of APE FVG, Antonio Nonino, president of Rassegna Tecnica FVG, Sergio Buzzi, president of E.S.Co Montagna FVG, Verio Solari, forestry doctor, Ermes Antonio De Crignis, president of the Mountain Community of Carnia, Davide Capraro sales manager at Herz Italy, Fabrizio Passone, Quadra srl, Luca Tommasoni, president of the Order of Industrial Experts of the Province of Trieste, Mauro Pinosa, Pinosa Srl and deputy mayor of Lusevera, Luigi Gonano, mayor of Arta Terme and Coriglio Zanier, mayor of Socchieve, who confirmed the administration's choice to return to the FVG Region the contribution of € 440,000 granted for the construction of a new district heating plant. The virtuous choice arose as a consequence of the technical evaluation carried out by APE FVG following the request received by the mayor, who had took part in one of the presentation meetings of the QM quality standard organized by APE FVG on the regional territory. The plant in question was very far from reaching the minimum requirements to be met in order to have the guarantee of economical and environmental sustainability.
The meeting ended with a musical greeting, thanks to maestro Gianmaria Paschini and an aperitif that enhanced the flavors of the geographical region of Carnia (north-west of Friuli Venezia Giulia region) organized by the Arta Terme Alpine Wellness Tourist Consortium.
