ENK5-2001-80526 ERA Bioenergy Strategy - Short Term Measures to Develop the European Research Area for Bioenergy RTD - ERA BIOENERGY

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EESD (Energy, Environment and Sustainable Development) : Solid Biofuels : Thermochemical Conversion

Proposal No:	ENK5-2001-80526
Date Prepared:	February 2004
Source:	European Bio-Energy Projects (EUR 20808)

Introduction

To reach the goals set by the White paper and by the Kyoto Protocol the use of biomass as an energy source has to be increased significantly in Europe in the near future. Therefore, bioenergy RTD will have to be enhanced significantly. The introduction of the European Research Area (ERA) will support the measures necessary to achieve this. The ERA bioenergy strategy is being carried out to support the actions necessary for the implementation of ERA in the field of bioenergy RTD.

Activities

All the participants are involved in their national RTD policy and programme planning processes. Hence, the ongoing planning process within the European Commission will be integrated thus assuring that the future European needs in bioenergy RTD will be reflected in the European Research Area. The ERA bioenergy work programme comprises three tasks:

Country survey: Survey of national bioenergy RTD policies and programmes. Besides current EU member and accession countries, the survey will include the IEA Bioenergy Research Network.
Bioenergy policies and programmes mapping: Categorisation and comparison of current national RTD policies and programmes; conclusions regarding the coordinated implementation of future national and European RTD policies and programmes.
Recommendations for short-term actions: Identification of opportunities for short-term actions leading to the ERA for bioenergy RTD by describing specific RTD areas and support tools.

Progress to date

The Country survey was carried out using five questionnaires covering:

• country conditions,
• driving forces,
• RTD policies,
• RTD programmes, and
• RTD institutions.

Country conditions This questionnaire aims to provide background information on biomass use in the partner countries: existing industr y, existing energy systems, biomass resource potential, existing and planned legislation, structure of RTD organisation, educational programmes, public perception and image of bioenergy, influence of renewable energy related EU Directives, opinion leaders, and lobbying groups.

Driving forces This questionnaire describes to what extent driving forces related to bioenergy RTD are valid in the partner countries: Energy security, environment, economic and technical development, and scientific interest.

RTD policies This questionnaire lists all policies directly or indirectly influencing bioenergy RTD: content of the law, legal status, addressees of the law, and relevance for bioenergy RTD.

RTD programmes This questionnaire lists all programmes and actions financing bioenergy RTD projects: programme character, programme content, and technologies promoted by the programme.

RTD institutions This questionnaire lists all bioenergy RTD institutions with at least two full-time employees for bioenergy RTD: description of the institution, and budget and industry relevance of the RTD results.

First results from Bioenergy policies and programmes mapping show that environmental concerns such as fulfilling the Kyoto obligation, a secure energy supply, and economic development are the main driving forces behind the use of bioenergy. In some countries, policies directly promote bioenergy RTD. The majority of countries have policies with an indirect impact on bioenergy RTD.

These policies refer mainly to electricity production and waste management. The majority of programmes focus on combustion and gasification, primarily for heat production and for combined heat and power production. Most programmes are related to woody biomass from forestry and wood industry, while programmes on agricultural biomass only exist in a few countries.

Of all the institutions working on bioenergy RTD, nearly half were university departments, less than one-third were public research institutions, and the rest were industry and private research institutions.

Future bioenergy RTD requirements in the participating countries have been drawn up from an indication of the relative importance ("need") of a particular topic and the means available ("capacity") to treat that topic in the participating countries.

Topics ("technologies/ processes/issues") have been chosen so that both technology-related and policy-related areas are covered. The results show that the capacities are generally considered to be insufficient, i.e. an increase of RTD effort seems to be necessary. The work under Recommendations for short term Actions is currently in progress.

Impact and exploitation

The expected results of the project are:

• Categorisation and comparison of the current national RTD policies and programmes and conclusions regarding the coordinated implementation of future national and European RTD policies and programmes; and
• Identification of opportunities for short-term actions leading to the ERA for bioenergy RTD by specifying RTD areas and support tools. Using these results, the European Commission and the member countries will be able to initiate actions to integrate future RTD programmes so that the potential for synergies will be exploited and efficiency will be increased.