BIOMASS

Biomass resources are organic materials that are available on a renewable or recurring basis. These include agricultural products and residues, forest products and residues, waste wood, plants, animal wastes, and other organic matter. Biomass recently surpassed hydropower as the largest domestic source of renewable energy and biomass now provides over three percent of the total energy consumption in the United States. The Department of Energy has estimated that there are over 500 million dry tons of available biomass in the U.S. today and that the U.S. has the potential to produce over 1.3 billion dry tons of biomass annually by 2030. Biomass resources are available on a worldwide basis in every economy on every continent.

MARKET DRIVERS

Global energy markets are in the early stages of a transition away from reliance on below-ground energy sources (petroleum, coal, natural gas) and toward reliance on above-ground energy sources (solar, wind, hydroelectric, biomass). This macro shift in global energy markets is continuing to gain momentum due to a series of key drivers:

Price Volatility and Upward Pressure -  Economic impacts from volatile oil prices and recent record prices in global petroleum markets have rippled through every economy, creating fears of a new, significantly higher plateau in global energy prices.

Energy Security - Governments around the world perceive dependence on imported energy as a serious national security threat and are moving to diversify energy supplies.

attributes to rising atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases.

Growth in Energy Consumption - The world’s population is projected to grow from 6.5 billion at present to over 9 billion by 2040 with increasing per capita energy use in developing nations.