Green energy in Europe

Table 1 : Top 10 Large

Biomass for green power production

T his column discusses the developments of the mar-

kets and the changes in policy regarding the supply and use

of green energy. It is the product of a co-operation between Refocus and

www.greenprices.com. In each issue, key informat ion will be presented on green energy both in Europe and

abroad. This month focuses on the use of biomass for the production of

green energy.

Green and clean When thinking of green energy, people usually start imagining futuristic wind- mills or deep blue solar panels. One

source that is rarely thought of is bio- mass. Or, when referred to, biomass is simplified by a simplistic image of a woodpile or a few tree-trunks. Indeed, large gasification or combustion plants for waste do not seem to appeal to the public opinion that much. However, the share of biomass in the green energy mix is rising in most countries. Together with its increasingly important role, the

number of questions regarding the degree of sustainability of biomass rises.

What is biomass? Biomass is a generic term for all veg-

etable material. Biomass can be in the form of wood, fruit remains (collected as organic domestic waste), agricultural

residues, manure or sludge. Relatively dry biomass, like wood, can be used for

the production of heat and electricity through combustion or gasification.

These are the same processes used for energy production from coal. Relatively wet biomass streams, like manure, can be anaerobically digested. In industrialized countries energy production from bio-

mass accounts for about 3% of all ener- gy used.

Currently, worldwide there are bio- mass plants of a few tens of kWe up to

about 50 MWe. As an illustration, a 30 MWe installation can supply electricity for 70,000 households. Higher efficien-

cies (>35%) are possible when biomass is co-fired in an existing coal plant. Coal plants generally have a capacity of about 600 MWe.

users of green energy in The Netherlands and the UK - All cateflories

UK Schottisch Authorities National government 112000 20 buying consortium

NL Dutch Railways Other 75000 5

UK London Borough of Municipalities 54863 100 Lewisham

UK Corporation of London Municipalities 31200 38

UK Edinburgh University Other 25000 42

NL Municipal Water Util ity Other 10500 29 Amsterdam

NL Water ut i l i ty Province of Other 10000 100 Drente

NL Van Melle Nederland B.V. Industry 9000 47

NL Ministry of Environment National government 7600 1 O0 (VROM)

UK Thomas Cook Retail/Services 7200 25

Source: www.greenprices.com, Top 25 of large users green energy in Europe, May 2001.

Biomass as green energy: key issues When is energy from biomass acknowl- edged as green energy? General criteria for a sustainable use of biomass are the following (source: Novem, www.bio- masster.nl):

• during the process of generating bioenergy, no harmful environmental- effects are allowed in the whole energy supply chain;

• there must not be any sort of exhaus-

tion of natural elements: the quantity of vegetable material should be sus- tained by adequate cultivation and maintenance of woods;

• the utilisation of natural elements should be optimum: natural elements should be used to the full extent, and the conversion of biomass into durable energy should be with the highest possible efficiency.

Yet, these criteria leave room for discus-

sion, in particular regarding the use of

specific biomass sources such as the com- bustion of chicken litter, sewerage sludge,

landfill gas and animal cadavers, co-firing

of organic material in coal combustion

power plants, and the determination of the organic fraction of waste.

National approaches National approaches regarding the accep-

tance of biomass as a source for green energy differ greatly. For example in the

Dutch case, electricity production from all biomass sources are accepted by the Dutch government to be sold as green energy and are exempted from the Dutch energy tax. However, in view of the estab- lishment of a new quality label, Dutch environmental and nature organisations are currently discussing additional criteria regarding biomass. Although no final decisions have been made, the energy extracted from the processing of chicken

litter, (non-organic) household waste and sewage sludge will probably not be accepted. Total electricity production from biomass in The Netherlands is over

3une 2001 REFOC~J~,~ www.re-focus.net

GREEN ENERGY IN EUROPE

200 GWh. For the largest part this is

being sold as green energy. Herewith the

share of biomass in green energy sales

amounts to about 30%.

In Germany there is no government

regulation in place regarding green ener-

gy sources. In all German labels, munic-

ipal waste is not eligible but sewage and

landfill gas are. Total electricity produc-

tion from biomass in I998 amounted to

1100 GWh (including sewage gas but

excluding landfill gas) and has further

increased during the last three years. The

share of biomass in green energy sales is

relatively limited (I-2%).

Although there was no strict regulation

on the status of biomass in the environ-

mental label schemes in Scandinavian

countries, this is about to change as new

criteria for green energy are about to be

published. In these countries, it is difftcult

to derive an exact figure for the produc-

tion of electricity from biomass sources as

these sources are usually used for the com-

bined production of heat and power. An

estimate for 2000 is 4 GWh. About 2.5%

of the Bra Miljoval certified electricity in

Sweden comes from biomass.

For the United Kingdom, 66% of

green energy sales accredited by Future

Energy come from biomass (20.1 GWh)

of which 80% is from landfill gas and

agricultural waste. Municipal waste

(20%) has been included in the Future

Energy accreditation recently. It is now

included in the scheme together with

industrial waste, landfill gas and agricul-

tural waste.

Ireland does not have an accreditation

program for green energy. So far the only

supplier to have received a licence to

provide green energy who supplies its

customers with biomass is ESB (utility)

with an installed capacity of 12 MW of

landfill gas.

Conclusion In general, green energy labels when they

exist are going to become stricter on

when biomass production should be

counted as green energy and when it

should not.

The principal impediment to the

growth of biomass is the price differen-

tial between conventional power and

power from biomass sources, for which

customers are not willing to pay. The

image of biomass really needs to be

improved and there should be more

communication regarding the various

Greenprices is an independent

website on green energy in Europe

and abroad, with information on sup-

pliers of green energy, their products

and prices, policy and news.

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For more information about

Greenprices or to suggest green energy

suppliers or large customers currently

not mentioned on the website, please

contact: Heddeke Heijnes, editor, EO.

Box 8408, NL3503 IX, Utrecht, The

Netherlands, tel. +3 1.30.2808300,

lix. +31.30.2808301 or send an email

to greenprices@greenprices.com

production sources included, before the

large potential of biomass can be fully

explored.