Biomass is Having a (Political) Moment

Biomass Magazine
May 2010
By Rob Goldberg

Biomass project developers can benefit by taking a closer look at the opportunities offered by the federal government in the cash grant program under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and USDA’s Biomass Crop Assistance Program.

This year is shaping up to be interesting for developing and financing power projects that use biomass as feedstock. On the one hand, raising private capital for biomass projects continues to be challenging, creating further pressure on biomass developers to structure “clean” projects with strong fuel supply and other contracts that favorably allocate risk to experienced and creditworthy project counterparties. On the other hand, a number of government incentives hold great promise for financing all kinds of bioenergy projects. Current developments relating to two of these government programs, the cash grant program under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 or the stimulus bill, and the Biomass Crop Assistance Program, are worth a further look.

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