Katowice, Poland – As climate discussions are underway among global leaders at COP24, the annual United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) conference, a new report released Tuesday showcases the feasibility of a European energy transition to 100% renewable sources. The new scientific study shows that the transition to 100% renewable energy will be economically competitive with today’s conventional fossil fuel and nuclear energy system, and lead greenhouse gas emissions to zero before 2050. The study’s financial case for an energy transition becomes even stronger when taking into account significant projected job growth and the indirect economic benefits for health, security, and the environment, that were not factored into the study.
The Foyer Bothey, a residence for disabled people in Gembloux (Walloon town located in the Province of Namur, Belgium) will soon equip itself with a biomass boiler, operating with miscanthus. This decision will allow this residence to reduce its its bills between €10.000 to €15.000 and its emissions by 184 tonnes of CO2 per year.
Late last month, the Chancellor of the University of Hohenheim officially opened the on-farm biorefinery technology center at the research station Unterer Lindenhof. This facility is destined to demonstrate a small-scale biorefinery concept for the conversion of all components of lignocellulosic biomass into platform chemicals.
How do you convert an oil refinery to a biorefinery? In this presentation given at an IEA Bioenergy Task 43 workshop, the research team examines the case of Hungary’s INA oil refinery and a project called BIO-CCUS.
Miscanthus New Zealand says that small-scale renewable diesel production using 50,000 metric tons dry weight of forestry waste or biomass such as miscanthus could be produced at prices equal to current fossil fuel prices and locked in for 12 months at that price—as long as the rest of the supply chain was also locked into a similar contract. Though the article in Stuff says the technology has been tested in the US, the exact technology referred to wasn’t identified.
Read accurate, up-to-date information on the overall EU energy system, the current state of play of bio-heat and bio-electricity, the availability and dynamics of supply, and much more on the situation of bioenergy in Europe.