European biomass resource potential and costs

Published Date
Biomass and Bioenergy
February 2010, Vol.34(2):188–202, doi:10.1016/j.biombioe.2009.07.011
A roadmap for biofuels in Europe

• Author 

• Marc de Wit ^,
• André Faaij

• Department of Science, Technology and Society, Copernicus Institute for Sustainable Development and Innovation, Utrecht University, Heidelberglaan 2, 3584 CS Utrecht, The Netherlands

Received 9 January 2009. Revised 8 June 2009. Accepted 9 July 2009. Available online 21 August 2009. 

Abstract

The objective of this study is to assess the European (EU27⁺ and Ukraine) cost and supply potential for biomass resources. Three methodological steps can be distinguished (partly based on studies explained elsewhere in this volume) (i) an evaluation of the available ‘surplus’ land, (ii) a modeled productivity and (iii) an economic assessment for 13 typical bioenergy crops. Results indicate that the total available land for bioenergy crop production – following a ‘food first’ paradigm – could amount to 900 000 km² by 2030. Three scenarios were constructed that take into account different development directions and rates of change, mainly for the agricultural productivity of food production. Feedstock supply of dedicated bioenergy crop estimates varies between 1.7 and 12.8 EJ y⁻¹. In addition, agricultural residues and forestry residues can potentially add to this 3.1–3.9 EJ y⁻¹ and 1.4–5.4 EJ y⁻¹respectively. First generation feedstock supply is available at production costs of 5–15 € GJ⁻¹ compared to 1.5–4.5 € GJ⁻¹ for second generation feedstocks. Costs for agricultural residues are 1–7 € GJ⁻¹ and forestry residues 2–4 € GJ⁻¹. Large variation exists in biomass production potential and costs between European regions, 280 (NUTS2) regions specified. Regions that stand out with respect to high potential and low costs are large parts of Poland, the Baltic States, Romania, Bulgaria and Ukraine. In Western Europe, France, Spain and Italy are moderately attractive following the low cost high potential criterion.

Keywords

Biomass potentials

Dedicated bioenergy crops

Agricultural residues

Forestry residues

Cost–supply curves

Spatial maps

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Nomenclature

NUTS

Nomenclature des Unités Territoriales Statistiques (English: The Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics), established by Eurostat in order to provide a single uniform breakdown of territorial units for the production of regional statistics for the European Union [1]. The NUTS Regulation lays down minimum and maximum thresholds for the average population size of the NUTS regions: NUTS1 corresponds to a population of 3–7 million, NUTS2 to 800 000–3 million and NUTS3 to 150 000–800 000.

WEC

Western European Countries

CEEC

Central and Eastern European Countries

EU

European Union

AEZ

Agro-Ecological Zones

CAP

Common Agricultural Policy

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 Table 1

Table 1.

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 Table 2

Table 2.

 Table 3

Table 3.

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