Biomass--defined as wood, wood waste, agricultural residues, and dedicated energy crops--contributed more than 3 quadrillion British thermal units (Btu) to U.S. energy consumption in 2000, or about 3 percent of the total, according to the Energy Information Administration's (EIA's) Annual Energy Review 2000.

Biomass energy consumption ranked second behind conventional hydroelectricity among renewable energy sources and constituted almost half of the U.S. renewable consumption total in 2000. Biomass is used in a variety of ways: industry burns wood and agricultural wastes for cogeneration of steam and electricity; the electric power sector uses biomass in electricity generation; and residences use biomass for space heating.

The possibility of expanding the biomass share of the U.S. energy mix is appealing because of its potential to reduce U.S. dependence on imported energy and in its possible environmental benefits. Biomass fuels' availability hinges on the costs of the fuels.

Biomass for Electricity Generation, newly released by EIA, analyzes the potential for grid-connected electric power generation from biomass under a range of prices. The study examines four types of biomass source: agricultural residues (wheat straw and corn stover), energy crops (hybrid poplar, hybrid willow, and switchgrass), forestry residues (logging residues, rough rotten salvable dead wood, and excess small pole trees), and urban wood waste and mill residues (primary mill residues plus urban wood such as pallets, construction waste, and demolition debris).

Projections of Biomass Resource Availability at Different Price Levels, 2020

Source: Energy Information Administration.

It assumes that there are no major changes in supply except for energy crops through 2020, and that energy crops become commercially available in 2010. The study indicates that biomass would be competing head to head with coal when cofired in electricity generating plants. For purposes of comparison, the price of coal in 2000, from the Annual Energy Outlook 2002 (AEO2002) reference case, was $1.20 per million Btu (MMBtu). That price is projected to fall to $0.97 per MMBtu (real 2000 dollars) in 2020.

The analysis results suggest that little biomass supply--only 234 trillion Btu, all of it urban wood waste and mill residues--would be available in 2020 at prices of $1.20 per MMBtu or less (see figure). Supplies from agricultural residues become available only when the price rises to about $2.00 per MMBtu; at $2.30 per MMBtu, energy crops and forestry residues begin to make significant contributions. To achieve the maximum available amount in 2020, estimated at 7.1 quadrillion Btu, the price must rise to almost $7 per MMBtu--highly unlikely given the expected path of coal and natural gas prices.

In the AEO2002 reference case, in which current laws and regulations are assumed to remain in place throughout the forecast period, biomass generation capacity is projected to grow from 6.6 gigawatts (GW) in 2000 to 10.4 GW in 2020.

A high-renewables case, which assumes lower initial capital, operating, and maintenance costs for the technologies, forecasts a capacity of 12.3 GW in 2020. A third case assumes that a nationally mandated renewable portfolio standard of 20 percent drives growth of nonhydroelectric renewable technologies. Under this scenario, biomass capacity expands to about 70 GW.

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File last modified: July 26, 2002