Students:Group Three: Eliška, Kiki, Magda, Veronika

Afternoon we came to the southeast border of Styria. In the city of Mureck we visited three companies cooperating on one site. From 1990 SEEG, Nahwärme and ökoStrom deal with bioenergy here. Before Nahwärme was set up Mureck district was dependent on fossil fuels whereas surrounding forest were full of useless wood. The idea of having a local source for heating developed into todays company which collects woods from surrounding areas and during the winter it burns the material and produces heat for Mureck's schools, municipal buildings, church and 210 households.

The idea to build ökoStrom – biogas power plant – came in 2000. Now it collects in huge tanks sewage and liquid rests from agriculture. Than the mixture is closed into tanks and under anaerobic process it produces biogas which produces electricity as well as little bit of heat. The company together with locals decided to use better technology for emmision extraction from the escaping air.

SEEG, last of the trinity, is responsible for biodiesel production from rapeseeds. Biodiesel is used by local farmers but mainly by public transport companies and SEEG’s trucks. In addiction it also powers biogas unit and local heating. There is also possibility to use cooking oil as additional material. Few years before restaurant chain were happy to get rid of used cooking oil but after that its tresury was discovered and competitivness between biofuels companies rose, also its price has rised. Because of the lower price of electricity the companies are not only dependent on subsidies but also other new investments must be found. Therefore there is new PV power plant on the field next to the site. Even more efficient is the idea to build a glasshouse with organic vegetable and PV panels on the roof which is better subsidized.

The motto of the company: Nature-Energy-Mureck Region-Peace, well expresses its pfilosophy and the emphasis on local development and self-sufficiency. It may be caused also by the fact that majority of owners are local farmers. From the presentation of the place what I would highlight are the complexity of bioenergy cycle and the best technologies available.

CRITIQUE The first negative thing about alternative fuels such as biodiesel and biomass is the need of a large initial investment, which could be problém for expansion of thhe technology to poorer countries or regions.Therefore there is a big need of state subsidies, but as we know, they aren’t inexhaustible and infinite. There is also a big risk, that the resulting income will be much more lower than the expected income, due to the changing market prices in time. As our guide mentioned there is also a problem with sufficient capacity of the region needed to grow rape, therefore we don’t understand why are the photovoltaic cinstructions places mainly on the ground. We think that the company should for example try to use a free place on the roof to reduce a simply bulit-up area. Also resources needed for production of biodiesel are more and more limited, which leads to the growth of prices of the resources which naturally also leads to the growth of the price of the biodiesel. This process then disadvateges smaller manufacturers. Of course that we could find many other controversial aspects.