MEDIA RELEASE
A new market report by the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) has identified the potential for bioenergy output to double over the next five years. The report identifies up to 800 MW of new generation opportunities from bioenergy by 2020.
The analysis shows that electricity from bioenergy can be a small but vitally important part of Australia’s energy mix into the future, drawing on biomass and waste resources such as urban waste, intensive livestock and food processing and forest products processing waste and forestry residues.
The Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Forest Products Association (AFPA), Mr Ross Hampton said “This is a very positive report into the potential for the bioenergy sector to contribute to clean energy and carbon emissions reductions. Presently, bioenergy represents less than 1% of power generation in Australia”.
“Given the recently announced commitment by the Australian Government to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 26-28% below 2005 levels by 2030, investment in all forms of low emission and renewable sources of energy will be necessary into the future.”
“The report identifies the high uptake in Europe of bioenergy, where forest biomass contributes around two-thirds of renewable energy, mostly used for generating heat. A lot of this investment has been driven by enabling policies that recognise the dual benefits from the cogeneration of both renewable electricity and heat”.
“The cost of establishing new plant for bioenergy is also at the higher end of the cost-competitiveness curve compared with other renewable sources such as wind and solar. Better recognition of the renewable heat component of cogeneration in clean energy schemes would go a long way in generating new investment in bioenergy”.
“With the right policy settings, the forest, wood and paper products industry could make a significantly higher contribution to the bioenergy sector from the use of forestry and wood processing waste”.