Does gas still have a future? Is gas really still competitive with oil or renewable raw materials for heating? We want to address this issue at the start of the new year. We bought an ETA 80 KW wood chip machine from MVB in Bretten. It is not yet in operation, but the values speak for themselves.
Does gas still have a future?
Due to the sanctions against Russia and the destruction of the Nordstream 1 and 2 pipelines in the Baltic Sea, there was a brief shortage of gas. Then came the scaremongering about gas storage facilities. In 2022, we were told that gas storage facilities would not be filled quickly enough. Why is that? Because they were never filled to 80 or 90 %. The filling volume was reduced to 30 % in the summer; filling the storage facilities only began in October. It will definitely not get any cheaper. The liquefied natural gas (LNG) now in use must be considerably more expensive due to the costly transportation alone.
The following taxes now apply to gas:
- Natural gas tax
- CO2 tax
- Gas storage levy
- Billanzierungsumlage.
TheCO2 tax on gas alone will rise to 1.18 ct/kWh by 2026. In 2021 it was still 0.46 ct/kWh. I myself expect a much higher increase, as theCO2 price for 2024 is already higher than planned. We are currently at 0.544 ct/kWh for theCO2 price and 0.55 ct/kWh for the natural gas tax. A big advantage of gas is, of course, that users don't have to worry about anything. They only pay for the monthly purchase quantity. They do not have to make any advance payments or clean tanks, as is the case with oil. We currently have a 300 kW gas boiler with a modulating burner at Strähle Metallveredelung in Zaisenhausen. This can modulate between 50 and 250 kW and is designed as a peak load boiler if the combined heat and power units do not generate the desired heat in winter.
Boiler for wood chips
The advantages of gas heating
- High efficiency.
- Hardly any energy loss.
- Reliable heat supply.
- Space-saving installation possible.
- Low purchase price.
Wood chip heating
The idea of finding a new independent raw material for heating process heat has been on my mind for a long time. What alternatives are there to oil and gas? Perhaps solar panels to capture the heat. But what about in winter, when there is no sun and the panels are covered in snow? So we concentrated on wood chips.
Disadvantages of a wood chip system
- Space requirement - you need an additional bunker to store the wood chips.
- A large buffer storage tank is required.
Advantages of a wood chip system
- There are no additional taxes.
- You can burn any type of wood. If wood chips are not available, pellets or energy crops can also be used (controversial).
- Low operating costs
- CO2 neutral
- High efficiency.
Top tip from the author
Anyone considering switching from oil to another fuel is perhaps better advised to use alternative energies. Although wood chip systems are expensive to purchase and require a lot of space, they are currently still eligible for subsidies as they are not harmful to the climate. There is a federal subsidy program for this: if 80 % of the heat is used as process heat, there is a 50 % subsidy on the overall measure. With costs between 3.2 and 4.8 cents/kWh, we are still significantly cheaper than the other fuels (gas 5.5 cents/kWh net plus the above-mentioned taxes and oil at
9.4 cents/kWh incl. currentCO2 levy)
Coming soon: Modern compressors - heat recovery
