A major shareholder in Drax Group  is pushing the UK utility to drop some licenses to harvest trees for biomass in Canada, reported Bloomberg. Schroder Investment Management Ltd asked the biomass producer to transfer of dispose of its existing so-called "Category Two" licenses within the next 12 months, according to a public letter from Schroders to the chairs of the UK... [Read More]

António Costa, Portugal's prime minister, visited the Caima cellulosic fibre production unit, which is being constructed by Altri Group, to observe the progress of the new biomass plant. The project is being financed by the Recovery and Resilience Program (PRR) - Portugal's post-Covid drive to stimulate sustainable economic growth, consisting of €13.9 billion in grants... [Read More]

Enviva has released a statement following a strong tornado that touched down in Amory, Mississippi in the US, on 24 March. The company affirmed that all of its associates are safe and accounted for, but that the storm damaged the firm's 115,000 metric tonne-per-year wood pellet production facility. Enviva's larger plants and ports in the region were not impacted. The... [Read More]

India's Ministry of Power organised a National Conference on Biomass - “3P-Pellet to Power to Prosperity” - in New Delhi on 24 March, under the aegis of a National Mission on Use of Biomass in Thermal Power Plants (SAMARTH) and National Power Training Institute (NPTI). The conference was aimed at fostering an enabling environment to boost co-firing of biomass pellets... [Read More]

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and SAEL Industries Limited have signed loan agreements of up to 7.5 billion Indian rupees (around €84.5 million) to promote the generation of biomass energy using agricultural residue, which ADB said would help diversify India’s energy mix and reduce carbon intensity. ADB’s support will fund the construction of five 14.9-megawatt... [Read More]

Spanish renewables firm ACCIONA Energía has commenced construction of its biomass plant in Logrosán (Extremadura), which it marked with a ceremony yesterday (22 March). Attendees included the president of the Extremadura government, Guillermo Fernández Vara, the mayor of Logrosán Juan Carlos Hernández, the chairman of ACCIONA, José Manuel Entrecanales, and... [Read More]

Biomass and feedstock supplier Ecostrat has announced that USA BioEnergy has joined the BDO Zone Strategic Alliance as a partner in the Project Group. The BDO Zone Initiative is an economic development platform that enables local communities to deploy powerful economic development tools – BDO Zone Ratings – to achieve the goal of driving, accelerating, and catalysing... [Read More]

Drax announced today (21 March) that it will pause its planned £2 billion (€2.2bn) UK investment in bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) until it receives more clarity on government support, reported Reuters. Drax welcomed the UK government's recent budget support for carbon capture and storage (CCS) but said it required a firm commitment to BECCS before... [Read More]

SGC Energy, a green energy solution provider in South Korea, will work with a Vietnamese power engineering consulting firm to carry out projects to convert coal power plants into biomass-based generating facilities, it announced on 15 March. The partnership was made followed by Vietnam’s state project to phase out coal power generation which accounts for 40% of the... [Read More]

The UK government recognises the important contribution that the waste wood biomass sector makes to energy security and net zero goals, according to energy minister Graham Stuart. The comment came in the answer to a parliamentary question tabled by Martyn Day MP on behalf of the Wood Recyclers’ Association (WRA), asking about support for the waste wood biomass industry. Stuart’s... [Read More]

A fire on 14 March resulted in the temporary closure of Kansai Electric Power's 1.8GW coal- and biomass-fired power generation plant at Maizuru in Japan, reported Argus Media. The fire took place at 21:52 Japan time (12:52 GMT) on 14 March at a facility that delivers wood pellets to boilers. Kansai was therefore forced to suspend operations of the 900MW No.2 unit at... [Read More]

Airex Energy has raised $38 million (€35.5m) in a funding round that will accelerate the Quebec company’s plans to expand its production of low-carbon industrial and agricultural products made from biomass, reported the Globe and Mail. The seven-year-old company employs its own technology to turn sawmill byproducts and logging residue into biocoal pellets at its plant... [Read More]

Ignitis Group and its subsidiary Vilniaus Kogeneracinė Jėgainė (Vilnius CHP) concluded an agreement for a €220 million loan with Swedbank, it was announced on 9 March. Ignitis said the funds will be used to complete the construction of the Vilnius CHP biomass unit (€85m), and to re-finance a long-term loan of Vilnius CHP that was provided by the European Investment... [Read More]

This month, Drax, one of the world’s leading producers and users of sustainable biomass, loaded its 200th shipment of sustainable biomass at the Port of Greater Baton Rouge. The shipment marks a major milestone for Drax’s operations in the United States, according to the company, as it amounts to more than 10 million tonnes having been shipped and used to generate... [Read More]

Independent public body the Climate Change Committee (CCC) has warned the UK government that it should end subsidies for firms that burn trees for biomass, reported Sky News. The CCC did, however, support plans to add carbon capture and storage (BECCS) to extant biomass plants. This would affect companies like Drax, the UK's largest bioenergy provider, which was... [Read More]

Biomass is widely considered a renewable alternative to fossil fuels, with many experts saying it could play a key role in combating climate change, according to Yale University. Biomass stores carbon and can be turned into bio-based products and energy that can be used to improve soil, treat wastewater, and produce renewable feedstock. However, economic constraints and... [Read More]