Bioenergy biggest renewable source, says WBA

The World Bioenergy Association (WBA) has launched its WBA Global Bioenergy Statistics report for 2017. The report claims that across the world, bioenergy remains the biggest source of renewable energy.

A number of key findings are unearthed by the report. Most significantly, the global supply of biomass increased to 59.2EJ in 2014, a 2.6% rise on the previous year. In total, it accounted for 10.3% of the global energy supply. Biomass also accounted for three quarters of the total renewable energy supply.

The report states that renewables consumption is greatest in the electricity sector, accounting for 23% of global electricity production. Biomass is the third largest renewable electricity generating source with generation of 493 TWh, but solar and wind are the fastest growing sources of electricity.

Biomass dominates the derived heat and direct heat sectors. In both, the biomass contribution to the renewables sector is over 95%. According to the report, “Heat sector is the single most important future development sector for biomass.”

In the transport sector, renewables only make up 2.8% of the energy supply, which according to the report is a result of the rapid growth of biofuels.

In terms of feedstocks, the WBA report notes that the forestry sector makes up 87% of the biomass supply. Agriculture contributes 10% to biomass via the use of animal by products, agricultural by products and energy crops. The waste-energy sector accounts for the remaining 3%, according to the WBA report.

The bioenergy sector employed 2.8 million people in 2014, claims the new report.

The new statistics report is the 4th in a series from WBA focussing on development of bioenergy on a global level.