Brussels, 25/02/2010 (Agence Europe) - As foreseen in Directive 2009/28/EC on the promotion and use of renewable energy sources, the European Commission published, on Thursday 25 February, its report on sustainability requirements for the use of solid biomass and biogas in electricity, heating and cooling. The report makes recommendations on sustainability criteria to be used by those member states that wish to introduce a scheme at national level, in order to avoid obstacles for the functioning of the internal market for biomass. An impact assessment accompanies the report. It shows that binding criteria would impose substantial costs on European economic actors, bearing in mind that at least 90% of biomass consumed in the EU comes from European forest residues and by-products of other industries. Although the report concludes that more detailed legislation is not necessary at this stage, the Commission promises to review biomass sustainability requirements in 18 months from now to assess whether the scheme needs to be modified, including through the introduction of some mandatory standards.
In the meantime, given the lack of harmonisation regulations at Community level, member states are free to put in place their own national schemes for solid and gaseous biomass used in electricity, heating and cooling. According to recommendations set out in the report, member states are expected to follow similar patterns and most importantly to be guided by the sustainability criteria explained in the report. The Commission thus hopes to minimise the risk of developing varied and possibly incompatible criteria at national level, leading to barriers to trade and limiting the growth of the bio-energy sector.
Sustainability criteria are based on: - a general prohibition on the use of biomass from land converted from forest, other high carbon stock areas and highly bio-diverse areas; - a common greenhouse gas calculation methodology which could be used to ensure that minimum greenhouse gas savings from biomass are at least 35% (rising to 50% in 2017 and 60% in 2018 for new installations) compared to the EU's fossil energy mix; - the differentiation of national support schemes in favour of installations that achieve high energy conversion efficiencies; - and the monitoring of the origin of biomass. It is also advised not to apply sustainability criteria to waste, as this must already fulfil environmental rules in accordance with waste legislation at national and European level, and that the sustainability requirements should apply to larger energy producers of 1 MW thermal or 1 MW electrical capacity or above. (E.H./transl.jl)