France is the seventeenth EU Member State to celebrate its National Bioenergy Day on this year's listing of Bioenergy Europe's National Bioenergy Days. Along with biogas, solid biomass is playing an increasing role in the defossilization of industrial- and municipal heating needs.
The European Bioenergy Day campaign aims to highlight the increasingly central role that sustainable biomass is playing in the EU’s energy transition.
According to Bioenergy Europe, bioenergy is a vital component of the EU’s energy system and economy, producing 85 percent of the EU’s renewable heat, representing alone one-third of renewable energy sector jobs, and saving enough carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions to cover the annual emissions of Spain.
Awareness campaign
The campaign provides key facts on biomass and the bioenergy industry and celebrates people, projects, and companies contributing to achieving European carbon neutrality.
In the past years, Bioenergy Europe launched the European Bioenergy Day campaign to provide tangible, first-hand examples of how bioenergy impacts the lives of EU citizens.
Facts
Background European Bioenergy Day
First launched in 2018, the European Bioenergy Day campaign is powered by Bioenergy Europe and relayed across Europe by both national and international partners supporting the belief that bioenergy is more than a renewable energy source, but a reliable path that will lead Europe to achieve its renewable energy transition.
Each year, Bioenergy Europe calculates the Bioenergy Day of the European Union (EU) and each Member State, showing how long a Member State or the EU could meet their energy needs using only bioenergy until the end of the year.
Every National Bioenergy Day is accompanied by a story, showcasing the impact of bioenergy in the EU, whereas the European Bioenergy Day is highlighted at the annual European Bioenergy Future conference.
This year’s motto is “Our Shared Steps Towards the Energy Transition” and the 2024 European Bioenergy Day campaign aims to share these stories, highlighting how bioenergy supports the local (bio)economy, fosters innovation, and boosts the EU’s competitiveness.
As the EU advances towards its climate goals, bioenergy continues to expand its role as a key ally in the transition.
The new EU mandate will address critical issues such as climate change, energy security, and the rising cost of living.
In this context, bioenergy is a key ally for the EU’s economy, sustainability, and energy security.
It offers a viable alternative to fossil fuels and it is a key player in carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technology thanks to bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS), and biochar through pyrolysis with carbon capture and storage (PyCCS).
Biogas, pellets, and district heating
With 40 days, November 20, 2024, marks the day France could begin relying on bioenergy for the rest of the year.
Like Germany, France is a heavy fossil gas user and the French biogas sector is seeing a veritable boom in anaerobic digestion (AD) plant buildouts, especially in agriculture but also landfill gas (LFG) capture and upgrading to biomethane aka renewable natural gas (RNG).
The RNG is injected into the extensive gas grid for distribution to industry, homes, businesses, and vehicle refueling stations.
With 13.8 million hectares or 30 percent of Metropolitan France i.e. excluding overseas territories, designated by the National Forest Inventory (IFN) as productive forest, France too has a sizeable wood processing industry and wood pellet production both evidenced at the European Pellet Forum event co-located with the Carrefour International du Bois held in Nantes earlier this year.
According to Bioenergy International’s World of Pellets Map 2024, France had 50 pellet plants operational in 2023 with a total installed capacity of over 2.1 million tonnes of which 17 plants with a combined capacity of 729,000 tonnes were ENplus certified.
Biomass-fired industrial- and district heating replacing fossil gas is seemingly high on the agenda – SWISS Krono France’s recently inaugurated Green Energy Sully project (see Bioenergy International No.5/2024) a case in point of the former while Dall Energy’s multiple projects in France cases in point of the latter.
