Abstract

Wood biomass for energy is largely produced in Europe from forest land resulting from silvicultural and management practices or from agricultural land in the form of fast growing plantations. The present paper reviews and compares the estimated current potentials for wood biomass production in 25 countries in Europe. The potentials are divided attending to these sources to identify the most suitable method of wood biomass production on a country level, based on its current forest and agriculture levels of production. Data has been collected and compiled from previous models and estimations. The total aggregated available potential in Europe is 76 Mm3 of wood biomass from the forests, with an additional 90 Mm3 from increasing the utilization of forest lands, and 98 Mm3 from fast growing plantations (dedicating 5% of current agricultural land). Germany and France showed high potentials both from agriculture and forest; Finland and Sweden had most of its potential from forest sources; and Spain, Poland, and UK from fast-growing plantations. When considered together, Europe presents a large potential for wood biomass production for energy, and each country should develop different policy strategies of promotion attending to the most available source to realize this potential efficiently.

Keywords

Biomass; energy crops; bioeconomy; agriculture; forestry; land use

Published in

Biofuels
2017, Volume: 8, number: 4, pages: 401-410

SLU Authors

• Dimitriou, Ioannis

  • Department of Crop Production Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

Sustainable Development Goals

Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all


UKÄ Subject classification

Agricultural Science
Renewable Bioenergy Research
Forest Science


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/17597269.2016.1271627

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/87683