Bioenergy

Bioenergy is the conversion of biomass - such as agricultural and forest by-products residues and wastes, organic municipal waste, energy crops with low indirect land use risk, algae, biological CO₂ - into useful energy carriers including heat, electricity and transport fuels.

Bioenergy is the main source of renewable energy in the EU, with a share of almost 60%.

The EU has leadership in bioenergy technologies, but deployment remains limited.

Bioenergy in RepowerEU and the European Green Deal

REPowerEU is the EU's plan for more affordable, secure and sustainable energy. Bioenergy can contribute significantly to the REPowerEU goals by ensuring security of energy supply and reducing dependency on fossil fuels imports. 

Bioenergy, and in particular advanced biofuels and biomethane, can also contribute significantly to multiple EU Green Deal objectives, for instance in the short term to the transport energy diversification and decarbonisation of transport sectors that are difficult to electrify, like maritime, aviation and heavy-duty road transport, but also light duty road transport during the transition to electrification.

Another example is their contribution to the grid flexibility and energy system integration as long-term energy carriers and energy storage solutions. Because they rely on local biomass resources and on short supply chains, bioenergy creates many skilled jobs, reduces energy poverty and drives industrial competitiveness.

Learn more about energy strategy and RepowerEU

• Info Pack on Innovative biomethane for REPowerEU
• Innovative Biomethane for REPowerEU – A Cordis Info Pack - YouTube

Opportunities

• bioenergy, liquid biofuels and biomethane are essential for both energy use and as energy carriers
• the market for advanced biofuels is growing because of their large renewable energy density
• the domestic market for innovative biomethane is growing, driven by REPowerEU
• because they are compatible with existing engines, drop-in biofuels are the only deployable solution for replacing petroleum in transport in the mid-term, and in sectors like aviation and shipping in the long-term as well
• research and innovation can improve the cost, performance, and sustainability needed to make bioenergy competitive

Challenges 

• improving the technology in terms of efficiency and cost reduction
• developing reliable, integrated bioenergy supply chains from feedstock cultivation, harvesting, transport, storage to conversion into heat, electricity and transport fuels
• integrating bioenergy in the overall energy system

Research focuses on

• technology improvement, cost reduction and diversification
• feedstock diversification
• modernising and improving efficiency of biomass based heat and power co-generation
• market uptake measures for all technologies, in particular aviation, shipping and heavy duty road
• breakthrough research and market-creating innovation (e.g. bionic leaf technology)
• coordinating EU research and innovation funding and risk financing to boost commercialisation
• integration of bioenergy in the overall energy system
• international cooperation to tackle global societal challenges