This planet demands energy to sustain life on its surface. With the intelligence of humankind interfering with the voracious usage of energy, the demand for energy has now become more entailing than ever. While bending the laws of thermodynamics, the depleting supply of traditional energy sources has led humankind to turn to bioenergy to satisfy its growing power needs.
Bioenergy is a source of energy derived from organic materials which makes up the green canopies of the world, precisely called biomass. What makes biomass the fuel form of this renewable energy is the organic material that comes from domestic waste, as if turning waste into gold.
In its narrowest sense, Bioenergy, synonymous with biofuel, is a form of renewable energy made available from materials derived from biological sources. These materials, or biomass, have stored sunlight in the form of chemical energy.
And more broadly, bioenergy encompasses biomass—the biological material used as biofuel—and the social, economic, scientific, and technical aspects of utilizing biological sources for energy.
A common misconception is equating biofuel with bioenergy; however, bioenergy is the energy extracted from biomass, where biomass serves as the fuel and bioenergy represents the energy contained within that fuel.
Modern bioenergy is the largest source of renewable energy globally, accounting for 55% of renewable energy and over 6% of the global energy supply. The Net Zero Emissions by 2050 (NZE) Scenario projects a rapid increase in bioenergy use to replace fossil fuels by 2030. From 2010 to 2022, modern bioenergy use grew by about 3% annually and continues to rise. Nearly two-thirds of biofuel demand growth will occur in emerging economies, primarily India. India has ample domestic feedstocks, additional production capacity, relatively low production costs, and a package of policies to influence the increased demand. However, to meet the NZE Scenario, deployment must accelerate to 8% per year between 2022 and 2030, while ensuring that bioenergy production avoids negative social and environmental impacts.
While it’s true that burning biomass releases carbon dioxide, but since it releases the same amount of carbon that the organic matter used to produce it absorbed while it grew, it still maintains the carbon balance in the atmosphere.
In contrast, burning fossil fuels adds carbon dioxide that has been stored for millions of years, disrupting the atmospheric carbon balance.
The environmental benefits and sustainability of bioenergy depend primarily on whether waste feedstocks or energy crops are being used.
Thus, to meet carbon reduction goals, it is necessary to reduce the amount of fossil fuel and switch to bioenergy.
Bioenergy is a low-carbon renewable energy that can replace carbon-intensive fossil fuels. Biomass fuels can be used where few renewable options exist, such as in fuel for airplanes, ships, and trucks. Plus, Bioenergy combined with carbon capture technology can potentially remove CO2 from the atmosphere, which is essential for future climate-friendly energy systems.
Abundant and renewable bioenergy can contribute to a more secure, sustainable, and economically sound future by:
Northeast India is blessed with significant opportunities for Bioenergy development due to its vast forest diversity and abundant bamboo resources. Covering 25% of India’s forest area despite occupying only 8% of its geographical land, states like Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh harbors extensive forest covers, essential for biomass production. Bamboo, with India hosting 136 species across 13.96 million hectares, offers substantial biomass potential, particularly in Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh. The region’s high carbon stock, primarily in soil organic carbon, further supports sustainable bioenergy initiatives. By integrating forest management and afforestation strategies, Northeast India can strikingly augment biomass availability for bioenergy while preserving its rich biodiversity.
Modern bioenergy excludes the traditional use of biomass found in developing countries and emerging economies, where open fires or basic stoves are used for cooking and heating, significantly impairing human and environment health. In the Net Zero Scenario aimed at achieving UN Sustainable Development Goal 7 on Affordable and Clean Energy, the use of these traditional biomass methods is projected to be phased out completely by 2030.
Modern Bioenergy policy design should therefore prioritize the highest-value benefits for bioenergy within the energy sector. This includes leveraging bioenergy for its compatibility with existing infrastructure, its capacity to generate high-energy-density fuels for long-distance transport, its ability to provide dispatchable power to integrate variable renewables into the grid, and its role in achieving broader policy goals like waste management and rural development.
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