Global Biopower Market to Show Steady Growth until 2025 despite Slump in Annual Additions, Says the New Study on ASDReports

Global cumulative biopower installed capacity increased significantly from 49 Gigawatts (GW) in 2006 to 87.6 GW in 2013. A major portion of this increased capacity employed several biomass conversion technologies, while a small portion used landfill gas or biomass gasification complemented by biogas conversion technology. The rise in global installed capacity during this period can be attributed to the installations in Brazil and China. Brazil used almost entirely solid-biomass conversion, with negligible biogas capacity addition. China, on the other hand, installed both biomass and biogas plants. Steady growth of the cumulative capacity is expected to continue, to reach 165.1 GW by the end of 2025, with more than 80% of the capacity using solid biomass conversion technology.

Wood Waste, Bagasse and Municipal Solid Waste to Remain Major Feedstocks
By mid-2014, wood waste was the most-used biopower feedstock, based on cumulative capacity. Around 32% of all biopower capacity used wood waste as their primary feedstock, as it is very widely available from a number of sources, such as timber businesses. Bagasse was the second most popular, with a 25.77% share, driven by sugarcane’s status as a major crop in India, Brazil and China, three of the largest biopower markets. Municipal Solid Waste (MSW), which is also a universally available feedstock, was the third most popular at 16.72%. Landfill gas, wastewater and palm oil had smaller shares, while other feedstock materials contributed 17.25% of the biopower capacity. In 2019, the shares of these feedstock materials are expected to be more or less the same.

The following chart shows the share of the different feedstock materials as primary feedstock in 2014, and the expected shares for 2019.

Brazil and the UK had the Largest Solid Biomass Capacity Additions in 2013

In 2013, Brazil installed the largest biomass power capacity globally, with 1,730 Megawatts (MW), or 29.7% of the total for that year. The UK was a distant second at 12%, with an annual capacity addition of 641 MW. India, which has a large potential for biomass power, made a significant addition to its capacity with 500 MW, which equated to 10% of the global capacity addition. Thailand, Germany, China, Poland, and Italy followed, with 7.3%, 6.5%, 5%, 4.8% and 2.6% respectively. All other countries’ biomass power capacity additions
accounted for the remaining 22% of the global annual capacity.