Bioenergy is an environmentally friendly source of renewable energy based on organic material. Examples of solid sources of bioenergy include timber, sawdust, straw, pellets, briquettes, bark, peat and organic waste.

In Norway as in the rest of the world, traditional wood-firing is the most usual way of obtaining bioenergy. Other fuels include forestry chips and waste, straw, peat and waste from the pulp and timber industries. The use of bioenergy in more highly processed products such as biopellets, biogas and biofuels for vehicles is on the increase.

Biodiesel
Vegetable and animal oils and fats can be used to produce biodiesel, and biethanol can be generated by biomass fermentation. Oil-rich vegetable crops such as rapeseed and field (or turnip) mustard are used as raw materials for the production of first-generation diesel oil. At SINTEF, we are currently doing research on how lignocellulose (timber, forestry waste, industrial and agricultural waste) can be utilised to produce second-generation bioethanol or biodiesel.

The use of bioenergy in more highly processed products such as biopellets, biogas and biofuels for vehicles is on the increase. In Norway, bioenergy could replace the use of electricity and fuel oil for heating, while biofuels could partially replace the use of fossil fuels such as petrol and diesel oil, thus helping to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Major potential
Bioenergy is widely available in Norway. Norwegian forests are growing much more rapidly than they are being cut down. Bioenergy can also be generated from organic waste and sewage. Food waste and farm manure can also be transformed into methane. The annual outtake of bioenergy in Norway is about 16 – 17 terawatt hours, or about 6% of the country’s annual energy consumption. The exploitable potential, i.e. the amount that it would be technically, economically and ecologically responsible to extract, has been estimated to be around 35 TWh.

In the course of the past 15 – 20 years, the use of bioenergy in Scandinavia has been steadily growing. With an annual production of 213 TWh and a annual growth rate of 6 – 7 percent, in 1998 bioenergy became Scandinavia’s most important source of renewable energy for the first time for several decades. In comparison, hydropower production in Scandinavia is around 200 terawatt hours in a normal year.