Co-firing Biomass with Coal

RenewableEnergyWorld.com
by Kevin Sullivan & Ronald Meijer, KEMA
Published: May 19, 2010

Co-firing makes use of existing power generation assets and infrastructure with the lowest cost of generation for renewable energy.

Oklahoma, United States -- As nations focus on controlling carbon, global demand for and production of coal-based electricity continues to increase. According to the International Energy Agency, the world's power demands are expected to rise 60 percent by 2030, with fossil fuels, including coal, accounting for 85 percent of the energy market. Ultimately, building towards a sustainable generation future, means balancing carbon objectives, energy demand and affordability. Biomass co-firing technology can provide a path to addressing climate change while mitigating costs to the world's coal-generation base and the customers served.

About half of the electricity in the United States is generated from coal. At the same time, the increasing focus on energy and climate change policy in the U.S. has introduced significant regulatory uncertainty in generation planning and operations. This uncertainty around where U.S. carbon policy is headed and when-along with the nature of modern utilities' complex planning-requires a long-term, forward-looking strategy, one that fully integrates generation portfolio management with changes in demand behavior.

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