Bioenergy Systems
Conditions for the implementation of different energy systems vary among regions. For example, natural resource availability, existing infrastructure, and the types of services on demand are likely to define technology choices and systems options. Policies and priorities may also imply more or less favorable conditions for given technologies and solutions, setting the development path, promoting, or rejecting opportunities.
The existing energy infrastructure is entangled and is heavily dependent on non-renewable resources. This infrastructure has been reliable because the technologies to deploy and use fossil fuels are well-developed, synergies exist with other industries, and there are markets for these fuels operating internationally. There is also often an established practice of subsidizing fossil fuels either directly as a way to retain jobs, or by not internalizing the full costs implied in their deployment and utilization. Therefore, the costs of shifting energy systems towards renewable alternatives are not simply the costs of developing new technologies and creating markets for them, but also the costs of shifting towards new infrastructure systems and other associated costs.
Energy systems such as a combined heat and power plants (at right) produce commodities that are an essential part of industrial production systems and peoples lives all over the globe. Energy systems need to be reliable and affordable, and transformation of their organization should not put security of supply at risk. Thus, when we think of bioenergy utilization in a context where modern energy services are already being provided, our initial focus is with the techno-economic transition per se and how we can put new technological solutions, and perhaps also services, into place with minimum disturbance in the quality of services provided. It is a matter of finding the right entrance for the new solution either by simply shifting smoothly towards a new fuel (i.e. from coal to biomass in district heating or electricity generation) or by adding a new service dimension as a way to motivate change (i.e. reduction of carbon emissions).
Bioenergy offers the possibility of harnessing domestic, rural-based, low-carbon and sustainable energy sources in both industrialized and developing countries. But concerted action is needed to develop bioenergy systems as the experience of the European Union illustrates. Also developing countries have, in many cases, identified their biomass potential but many still lack the institutional base to develop bioenergy systems and plan for their sustainability.
Encyclopedia ID: p1149
