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Promoting Bioenergy 
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Bioenergy Systems

Conditions for the implementation of different energy systems vary among regions and will be influenced by natural resource availability,existing infrastructure, and types of services on demand. Policies and priorities may also imply more or less favorable conditions for given technologies and solutions.

 

The existing energy infrastructure is entangled and is heavily dependent on non-renewable resources. This infrastructure has been reliable because:

  

McNeil Generating Station

Burlington, Vermont

www.burlingtonelectric.com

  
  • The technologies to deploy and use fossil fuels are well-developed, synergies exist with other industries;
  • There are markets for these fuels operating internationally; and
  • There is also often an established practice of subsidizing fossil fuels either directly as a way to retain jobs, or by not internalizing the full costs implied in their deployment and utilization

Therefore, the costs of shifting energy systems towards renewable alternatives are not simply the costs of developing new technologies and creating markets for them, but also the costs of shifting towards new infrastructure systems and other associated costs.

Bioenergy offers the possibility of harnessing domestic, rural-based, low-carbon and sustainable energy sources in both industrialized and developing countries. But concerted action is needed to develop bioenergy systems as the experience of the European Union illustrates. Also developing countries have, in many cases, identified their biomass potential but many still lack the institutional base to develop bioenergy systems and plan.
 

 

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"A program of the Cooperative Extension Service funded by the Renewable Resources Extension Act"
Last Updated: June 2, 2008