Fact Pack

• Although only a tiny fraction of the solar energy reaching the earth each year is converted into biomass, it is nevertheless equivalent to over five times total world energy consumption. (U.S. Department of Energy)
• Using currently available land and the existing agricultural infrastructure, biomass could replace all of the power nuclear plants generate and do so in a sustainable fashion. (American Biomass Association)
• According to the Environmental Law and Policy Center, there are currently 66,000 jobs in biomass energy, and full development of this technology could result in 283,000 jobs by 2010. (Environmental Law and Policy Center)

Electricity

• In the United States, we already get 60 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity from biomass, about 2 percent of our nation’s total. (Union of Concerned Scientists)
• The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) estimates that biomass could supply 5 percent of our electricity consumption needs by 2010. (U.S. Department of Energy)
• Energy crops and waste biomass from the Midwest alone could theoretically provide about 16 percent of the country’s electric capacity, without irrigation and without competing with food crops. Biomass from other regions could obviously raise its contribution to the national power supply even higher. (Union of Concerned Scientists) 
• According to a recent report prepared for the DOE by five National Laboratories, domestic biomass generation capacity could reach 20-30 GW by the year 2020 by co-firing at existing U.S. coal-fired power plants. (U.S. Department of Energy)
• Currently, only six coal-fired plants in the U.S. are engaged in co-firing, which is cheaper than straight-coal firing and reduces emissions of carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen oxides. (U.S. Department of Energy)
• Biomass – energy from plants and animals – supplies approximately 30 times as much energy in the United States as wind and solar power combined. (Union of Concerned Scientists)

Fuels

• DOE believes that we could produce 10 percent of our transportation fuels – cellulosic ethanol and biodiesel – from biomass by 2010, and as much as 50 percent by 2030. (U.S. Department of Energy) 
• By making ethanol from energy crops, we could obtain between four and five times the energy that we put in and, by making electricity, we could get perhaps 10 times or more. (Union of Concerned Scientists)
• Biomass contains less energy per pound than fossil fuels. This means that raw biomass typically can’t be cost-effectively shipped more than about 50 miles before it is converted into fuel or energy. The advantage of this is that local, rural communities – and perhaps even individual farms – will be able to design energy systems that are self-sufficient, sustainable, and perfectly adapted to their own needs. (Union of Concerned Scientists)
• Traditional biomass combustion captures between 20-30% of the energy contained within the feedstock. (American Biomass Association) 
• Gasification captures about 65-70% of the energy in solid fuel by converting it first into combustible gases. (American Biomass Association)
• Biomass generally contains less than 0.1% sulfur by weight compared to even the lowest-sulfur coal with 0.5 - 4% sulfur. (International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives)