BioenNW – A valuable model for local biomass supply chain development in European regions
For many years, the most widely used biomass in Europe in large size power plants has been wood. Woody biomass is co-fired with coal, or 100% fired in biomass boilers to produce electricity, and directly delivered to end users. On one hand woody biomass is expensive, limited, and takes time to grow (especially large size trunks from forests). On the other hand, the demand is rapidly growing (from 12 MMT of pellets in 2011 to 80 MMT in 2020. (Source: EREC 2012).
The EU bioenergy market is destined to reach a value of €70 billion in the next 23 years (2012-2035). This volume can’t be represented by only high quality wood (Source: Emerging – energy, May 2012). Agricultural residues like straw, pruning residues, grass, and manure produced by small local farmers, represent the potential of biomass in Europe; a general strategy for new efficient supply chain must be defined soon. This fundamental challenge was heavily discussed at this year’s European Conference, with many speakers presenting initiatives and projects focused on this topic.
The BioenNW project, which took a stand at EU BC&E 2013 to raise awareness of the project’s work, is aligned closely to this European challenge and could be positioned as a model to export to other European interregional areas: a new strategy for biomass and bioenergy local supply chain must be defined.