Biomass

As energy utilities move away from fossil fuels to meet international emission reduction commitments, all sources of renewable energy resources have experienced considerable growth. While solar photovoltaics and wind turbines are often the first technologies that come to mind, the International Energy Agency predicts bioenergy will contribute the most renewable production over the next five years and account for more than 30% of growth. In its simplest form, biomass contains stored energy from the sun. The most common materials used for bioenergy are plants, wood, and waste. Biomass can be used for energy by a process called thermal conversion, and is most often co-fired in coal plants. Additionally, biomass can also be used to create biofuels such as ethanol and biodiesel. Lastly, biomass is rich in hydrogen, methane, carbon dioxide, and other gases, and can be used to create biogases.

New regulations and subsidies, carbon pricing in Europe, depletion of fossil fuels and discussions surrounding CO2- induced climate change have widened the biomass market, which in addition to its low carbon attributes, offers attractive benefits to grid operators for its dispatchability, [new sentence here?:] sources of electricity that can be used on demand and dispatched at the request of power grid operators according to market needs and reliability [ this sentence is quite long and confusing to me. I think it can be shortened and simplified ]. To support these growing markets, sustainable ecosystem management must be central to bioenergy supply chain operations, as mismanaged ecosystems are environmentally destructive and detrimental to climate mitigation efforts.