European Report on Bioenergy and the Environment

Thanks again to BioPact for bird-dogging an important EU report that "assesses how much biomass could technically be available for energy production without increasing pressures on the environment." It was written by the European Environment Agency and is called How much bioenergy can Europe produce without harming the environment?

This 72-page document provides objective analysis of feedstock available for bioenergy energy systems that convert biomass into heat, electricity, and biofuels. It provides a listing of its overall assumptions and then gives a detailed assessment of the bioenergy potential for agricultural, forestry, and waste sectors. It also provides annexes that focus on such topics as:

• Indicative comparison of crop prices for bioenergy compared to commodity prices.
• Environmental pressures by crop.
• Net calorific values (per crop).
• Possible policy measures to influence the environmental effect of bioenergy cropping.

This is a valuable, up-to-date tool that can help policymakers, marketers, environmentalists, investors, agronomists, and other stakeholders assess the potential impact, needs, and opportunities associated with bioenergy systems. Its focus is on implementation in Europe but it is clearly relevant to study for other parts of the world.


technorati bioenergy, investment, Europe, biofuels, waste, environment, policy, sustainability, calories, prices