38 July/August 2013 | Renewable Energy Focus

US still dominates the electricity from biomass world market

IN ENERGY terms biomass is the most

important renewable energy carrier globally. It

is used for the provision of heat, electricity and

transportation fuels. Traditionally most of the

organic material used within the worldwide energy

system helps to cover energy demand for cooking and

heating; this use totals 8.5 % of global fi nal energy con-

sumption. Additionally in recent years the modern use of

biomass – and here especially the provision of electricity

– has gained more and more importance, as the REN21

(Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century):

Renewables 2012– Global Status Report, points out.

Globally, installed biomass plant

capacity rose from 66GW in 2010 to

72GW by the end of 2011. As a whole,

biomass based electricity generation has

grown annually by roughly 9% during

the last decade, REN21 says. Assum-

ing a lower annual average growth

rate of about 5% in 2012, an accu-

mulated capacity of 76GW with an

electricity generation between 265-

529TWh can be expected for the year

2012 (see Table 6 and Figure 1).

The global leader in biomass

based power production is the US

with an installed capacity of roughly

17GW and an electricity generation

of ca. 61TWh in 2012. This refl ects

an increase of 1% related to 2011.

But also the EU (28.3GW), China

(4.4GW), India (3.8GW) and Japan

(3.3GW) are important producers of

bioelectricity.

Solid biofuelsSolid biofuels used for electric-

ity generation are mainly wood and/

or wood waste from forestry and

the subsequent industries, solid res-

idues from the sugar based bioeth-

anol industry (ie. bagasse), residues

from the pulp and paper production

(i.e. black liquor) as well as wood pel-

lets traded internationally. Wood from

short-rotation coppices plays only

a minor role within the electricity

market based on solid biomass. While

in Europe mainly wood waste, pellets

and residues from the pulp and paper

industry are used, sugar producing

countries like Brazil and some other

American and African countries

are primarily using bagasse in power

for combined heat and power (CHP)

plants. For example in Brazil (9.7GW)

more than 80 % (7.8 GW) of the pro-

duced electricity from solid biomass is

provided by bagasse in CHP plants.

In general electricity from solid

biomass is provided in CHP plants as

well as in electricity-only facilities.

But also co-fi ring in coal fi red power

stations is a widely used option in

some countries (eg. The Netherlands,

Belgium, Finland). More innovative

technologies with higher electrical

effi ciencies like biomass gasifi cation

are also still under development; they

have not achieved signifi cant market

diff usion yet. So far few gasifi cation

projects are under operation and/or

under construction (eg. Güssing and

Oberwart in Austria, Ulm in Ger-

many, Goteborg in Sweden).

Due to the growth of international

trading of solid biomass – especially

wood pellets – the installed capac-

ity of the biomass-based power plants

has increased over time. For exam-

ple in the UK, the Netherlands, Bel-

gium and Poland plans exist to

convert existing coal-fi red power sta-

tions either into biomass fi red power

stations based mainly on wood pel-

lets or to increase the co-fi ring capac-

ities (Ernst & Young: Renewable Energy

Country Attractiveness Indices, Issue

36, February 2013). One typical sample

is a power station based on solid bio-

mass which was launched in 2012 in

Tillbury/UK. With an installed capac-

ity of 750MW it is the world largest

power plant fuelled with solid bio-

mass – primarily imported wood pel-

lets from the US, Canada and other

EU-countries. Canada is the biggest

exporter into the EU providing about

85 % of the global pellet production,

according to REN21.

With a share of 67% of the world

biomass-based electricity market,

solid biofuels are the most widely used

biofuel. With at least 48GW installed

power in biomass-based electricity

generation systems by the end of

2011, the installed capacity rose by

5 % between 2010 and 2011. With

an assumed annual plant operation

between 3500 and 7000 full load

Focus on renewable power generation

Installed capacity 2012

(GW)

Growth rate 2011 to 2012

(%)

Operating time (hr)

Electricity generation 2012 (TWh)

Solid biomass 50 3.5 3,500 – 7,000 175 – 350

Biogas 14 10.0 3,500 – 7,000 47 – 95

Municipal solid waste 10 5.0 3,500 – 7,000 36 – 72

Liquid Biofuels 2 20.0 3,500 – 7,000 6 – 12

Total biomass 76 5.0 3,500 – 7,000 265 – 529

Table 6: Summary of global biomass to electricity market 2012.

REF0413_biomass 38 31-07-2013 10:49:31

39July/August 2013 | Renewable Energy Focus

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

Total

Ele

ctr

icit

y G

enerati

on 2

012

(T

WH

)

Solid Biomass Renewable MSW Renewable Biogas Liquid Biofuels

Asia Pacific

Africa

Middle East

Europe & Eurasia

South & Central America

North America

hours, 170-339 TWh of electricity has

been produced worldwide based on

solid biofuels. By assuming an annual

growth rate of 3.5 % (due to the

economic crises in various countries)

the installed capacity by the end of

2012 is at least 50GW with an annual

electricity generation between 175-350

TWh (Figure 1).

Around 75 % (152.7TWh) of global

electricity generation from solid bio-

mass is produced in OECD countries.

In Europe 79.4TWh has been gener-

ated in plants using solid biofuels and

more than half (58%) of the electric-

ity has been provided via CHP-plants.

Key markets within the EU are Ger-

many (12.5TWh), Finland (10.1TWh),

Sweden (10.0TWh) and Poland

(8.4TWh). In the UK, electricity

generation from solid biomass is also

gaining importance (showing an

increase of 13.5% between 2011 and

2012); here in 2012 around 6.9TWh

was produced in biomass and co-fi ring

plants.

Municipal Solid WasteDuring the last decade electricity

generation using municipal solid waste

(MSW) incineration grew worldwide

by an average annual rate of about

6%. The highest share of the global

electricity generation from thermal

waste treatment is provided within

the EU (18.7TWh) followed by the US

(9.5TWh) and Japan (3TWh). A sig-

nifi cant increase occurred between

2010 and 2011 with a growth rate

of more than 15%. But within the

OECD-countries it has risen from

30.5TWh in 2010 to 31.8TWh in 2011

and thus by less than 5%. During

the same period non-OECD-coun-

tries increased their power out-

put from waste from 1.5TWh up to

6.2TWh (more than 75%). Assum-

ing that the accumulated installed

capacity of waste-to-energy facilities

grew worldwide in average by 5% in

2012, an installed capacity of 10GW

and an output between 36-72 TWh is

expected for 2012.

Biogas and liquid biofuelsWorldwide biogas powered capac-

ity is estimated to be 14GW with an

electricity output between 47-95TWh

by the end of 2012, assuming a yearly

growth rate of 10%. With an elec-

tricity provision of 37.1TWh in 2012,

the EU is still the largest producer of

energy from biogas followed by the US

(10.2TWh).

With a share of 60% (22.4TWh/a)

of the total European biogas pro-

duction, Germany is the biggest bio-

gas producer within the EU; in the

future a rapid increase in biogas pro-

duction is also expected in the UK,

Italy, Poland, France and the Czech

Republic. China and India have also

increased their biogas capacities dur-

ing recent years. In China by the end

of 2012 at least 800MW biogas power

was installed while India is operat-

ing 70 biogas plants fed by urban and

industrial wastes with at least an

accumulated capacity of 91MW.

Liquid biofuels can be produced

from plants containing starch (eg.

corn for bioethanol), sugar (eg. sugar

cane for bioethanol) or oil (eg. oil

palm for vegetable oil or FAME). Even

if the transport sector is the primary

fi eld of application for liquid biofuels

- commonly bioethanol and biodiesel

– to a minor extend there are power

and/or CHP facilities generating elec-

tricity based on these liquid biofuels.

The world’s largest power sta-

tion using palm oil, with a capacity

of about 100MW, is operated in Italy.

But also in Brazil and Argentina CHP

plants fuelled by liquid biofuels are

under operation.

During the last decade electric-

ity generation from such biofuels has

stagnated mainly due to economic

reasons. Therefore global annual

electricity generation is expected to

remain at the level of the last two

years at about 6-12TWh.

Focus on renewable power generation

Biomass is the most important renewable energy carrier globally - it is used for the provision of heat, electricity and transportation fuels (Photo: Shutterstock/Von Schonertagen).

Figure 1: Regional breakdown of electricity generation from biofuel sources in 2012 (estimated annual output using average full load hours).

REF0413_biomass 39 31-07-2013 10:49:31