Brussels, 30/09/2013 (Agence Europe) - A study by European and North American wood pellet producers has demonstrated the advantages of using solid biomass to produce clean electricity.
United in the Bridging with Biomass coalition, the wood pellet producers' associations of Europe, the United States and Canada - European Industrial Pellet Suppliers, US Industrial Pellet Association and Wood Pellet Association of Canada - unveiled a report on 24 September which shows that using solid biomass to produce energy brings significant carbon savings.
“The study reveals that when assumptions and real data from the field are used for modelling forest carbon dynamics, the production of energy from sustainable solid biomass results in an immediate or very rapid contribution to climate change mitigation”, states the coalition. Solid biomass, the reliable and sustainable supply of which is guaranteed, allows energy suppliers to reduce carbon emissions from coal-fired power stations and makes a significant contribution to EU renewable energy targets by 2020, it says.
The report, prepared in collaboration with the European Biomass Association AEBIOM and the Danish Energy Association and with a number of energy groups (GDF/SUEZ/Laborelec, Essent NV, E.ON Climate and Renewables, and Vattenfall AB) focuses on the South-East of the United States and British Columbia in Canada, two major supply regions for pellets for consumption in Europe. Its main conclusions, however, apply also to pellets produced in Europe, says the Bridging with Biomass coalition. It calls on the Commission, which has just presented its forests strategy (see EUROPE 10926) to take account of the findings in its policy-making in order to guarantee long-term investment and the legal security needed by sustainable biomass in Europe.
The study on the sustainability of forests and the carbon footprint of the North-American forest biomass imported for bioenergy production is available at: http://www.aebiom.org/blog/bridging-with-biomass (EH/transl.fl)