The surrounding environment is one of the greatest factors determining the quality of life, therefore, protection and conservation of environment becomes an important task. Over the past decades, most of the energy was produced by the use of fossil fuels. As energy consumptions are growing, greater use of alternative energy is predictable.
Each EU country has its incentive scheme of the use of renewable energy resources, prepared according to the progress that a country has made in the area of renewable energy. Importance of the green energy is noted in the legislation of the EU countries, including Lithuania. Use of renewable energy sources is one of the main objectives of energy policy of the Republic of Lithuania set out in the National Energy Strategy and Energy Law of the Republic of Lithuania. Lithuania has taken a commitment to the EU directives in the energy sector. These directives are concerned with increase of efficiency of energy production and wider use of renewable energy for energy generation. Lithuania shall ensure that by 2020 part of renewable sources in gross final energy consumption would be no less than 23%.
Producing heat from renewable sources is a way to tackle climate change and reduce the dependence of energy sector of the country on fossil fuels suppliers.
Biofuel
Biofuel is renewable organic fuel, which makes an excellent alternative to air polluting and national resources attritional fossil fuel. Biofuel is derived from wood, logging waste, straw, energy crops, grassland biomass waste and other resources that are renewable resources of energy.
Research shows that by burning biomass carbon dioxide CO2 that is being thrown into atmosphere, the green house effect is not increasing, because it belongs to the natural carbon cycle circulation. This means that during the process of photosynthesis vegetation absorbs from the environment all CO2 that was released to the environment by burning biofuel, and then the overall quantity of CO2 remains unchanged in the cycle.
Meanwhile, by burning fossil fuel (coal, fuel oil) not only a lot of carbon dioxide CO2, but also other harmful substances and products – different metal compounds are being excreted into the environment. Heat generation from fossil fuels pollutes the environment and increase the climate change. Choosing biofuel for heat extraction is an effective way to reduce amount of emissions of harmful gas and increase independence of the state in the energy field.
In Lithuania first biofuel-using boiler-houses were built in 1994, while already in 1999 when bigger boiler-houses of such type were constructed, the use of biofuel for heat extraction became an independent industry. Biofuel is a perspective type of renewable energy promoting environmental protection and economic growth of the country.