Energy Institute Hrvoje Požar organized a regional trip to the Elementary School "Jelenje-Dražice," which took place on March 14, during which 21 participants had the opportunity to see an excellent example of a biomass boiler.
The visit was organized to the school, which was reconstructed in 2021, with investments of 5.4 million euros. The reconstruction included, among other things, a new pellet boiler. An automated boiler can use wood pellets or wood chips as fuel. It is equipped with a combustion chamber made of silicon carbide and enables efficiency levels of up to 94 percent, with extremely low emissions, while ash is only 0.3 percent of the total fuel mass. Harmful emissions have been significantly reduced with the new solution of the boiler house because the fuel oil has been replaced with forest biomass, and the pellets come entirely from local sources. Hence, the whole concept also gains weight in terms of sustainability.
The regional trip was organized as part of the REPLACE project, financed through the European Union's Horizon 2020 program, and was intended for all interested stakeholders, end users, members of the local working group, and installers in order to get acquainted with innovative and efficient solutions in heating and cooling systems and their possibilities implementation.
The goal of the REPLACE project is to provide active support in the implementation of European energy, climate, environmental, economic, and social goals until 2030 and 2050 in Primorje-Gorski Kotar County. The project encourages gradually replacing inefficient and outdated heating and cooling systems with new, energy-efficient systems based on renewable energy sources. All activities included in the REPLACE project aim to inform and motivate end consumers, owners and managers of buildings, installers, and legislators to work together to replace old and inefficient heating and cooling devices. Replacing them results in financial savings and improves air quality, comfort, energy supply, and energy security.
