The Susa Valley is an Alpine zone in the northern part of Italy with 90,000 inhabitants in 14 municipalities. The SCORE pilot project here focuses on replacing existing block heating facilities powered by diesel and oil fuel with new ones fuelled by biomass in the form of locally produced wood chips.
The Italian pilot project was launched in June 2018; in the course of its three-year runtime, biomass power plants are to be expanded by annually adding 1.3 MWh per installed MW capacity. Approximately 2,200 households will benefit from the project by changing their heating energy source from fossils to renewables. This process is further accompanied by energy efficiency measures.
Due to behavioural changes related to (co-)ownership of the new installations, the overall energy consumption is expected to be reduced by 14% per year. On average, households in the region consume an annual amount of 3,000 kWh. Assuming a 14% decrease in consumption, the energy demand will from then on amount to 2,632 kWh per year, yielding 368 kWh (3000 kWh – 2632 kWh = 368 kWh) annual savings per household. Consequently, the total of targeted energy savings amounts to 809,600 kWh (368 kWh * 2,200 households = 809,600 kWh) per year.
The local partners in charge of the Italian pilot are the Politecnico di Turino, the forestry and lumber cooperative La Foresta, the Consorzio Forestale, a company managing the forestry conjointly owned by the municipalities of the valley, and the social cooperative AMICO.
See also our project movie presentation here.
