Many Slovak and Norwegian distinguished guests attended this important event in the project final phase of its implementation. Norwegian ambassador in Slovakia Inga Magistad, Slovak ambassador in Norway Frantisek Kasicky, Jan Krak representing Government Office of the Slovak Republic among the other. Within the Slovak - Norwegian bilateral cooperation our Slovak and Norwegian partners attended the Closing Conference of the project as well.

Mr. Vladimir Vacho - the member of the BIOPEL, a. s. board and Mr. Milan Stano - the chairman of the board of the directors of the Association BIOMASA dedicated the opening ceremony to the distinguished guests. Afterward, Mr. Ladislav Zidek - director of the Association BIOMASA, presented a story of the project "Biomass Logistic Centre" (BLC) preparation, project partners searching as well as searching for the partners for co-financing of the project. Afterward, Mr. Pavol Lenhart - the member of the BIOPEL, a. s. board presented realization and outputs of the project BLC implementation. After the welcome and presentation, the formal opening ceremony of the Biomass logistic centre followed and four distinguished guests cut the ribbon ceremoniously - ambassador Inga Magistad, Mrs. Janka Kasanicka, Mr. Jan Krak and Mr. Milan Stano.

The distinguished guests participated in the press conference and answered the questions covering the financial support for Slovakia from Norwegian financial mechanism as well as positive impact of the project outputs on the local economics. 

In the morning the Slovak - Norwegian delegation was invited to the production facilities of the project partner Cenzual, the association of land owners in Rajec. Within this program Mr. Stefan Fusko - chairman of the company presented the partner's project outputs and he presented the production to the quests.

The Closing Conference for the project partners was held the day after this event on Thursday 1st of December 2016. This close-out meeting was an opportunity for the project indicators evaluation. The Slovak and the Norwegian partners presented their outputs and evaluated the cooperation within the project implementation as very successful and both sides beneficial. 

The Pproject is supported by a grant from Norway and co-financed by the state budget of the Slovak republic within the Green Industry Innovation programme. The project is financed also using the credit funds obtained from Tatra Banka, a. s. and own financial sources. The amount of the project budget is 6 443 542 €, the project grant is 3 377 927 € of the total budget. 4 project partners are involved in project implementation - 2 Slovak and 2 Norwegian organizations. Project partners provide for bilateral knowledge and experience exchange supporting successful implementation of the project.
Partner 1 - Cenzualne spolumajitelstvo Rajec, association of land owners
Partner 2 - Norwegian Forestry Group, Ltd.
Partner 3 - International Development Norway, Ltd.
Partner 4 - University of Zilina, Slovakia

Biomass logistic centre in Kysucky Lieskovec will significantly contribute to local economy support also thanks to creation of 33 new green jobs and support for local biomass producers. The project also includes new environmental technologies such as the new system and approach to the production of wood chips, the use of mobile container drying for wood chips, integration of the system for the purchase, storing and logistic for alternative wood pellets and briguettes and strict quality control system ensuring the highest quality of wood biofuels.
Biomass Logistic Centre represents an innovative way to develop and provide local supply of biomass biofuels. The aim is to ensure wood biofuels with guaranteed quality of Slovak raw materials, transparent market and security of supply. The Centre and its activities contribute substantially to the use of renewable energy, reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and environment protection. The project demonstrates one of the basic approaches to the rapid transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy resources harvested in a sustainable way.

The outputs of the press conference

Pictures from the event: