Introduction and general considerations
Biomass potentials list the annual potentials (e.g. in dry mass or heat value) for different feedstocks in different regions. They may also associate costs with different potentials.
Feedstocks include, for example, primary forestry products, forestry residues, energy fuel crops, agricultural residues, manure, waste, etc.
Sustainability concerns have been raised about some feedstocks, focusing on emissions from land use change, competition with food crops, competition with other uses (straw for animal feed/bedding, wood for building/furniture) and loss of biodiversity. As a result estimates of sustainable potentials can vary widely depending on assumptions and the methodology used.
There are also many different pathways for the use of biomass in the energy system, such as direct combustion for dry, solid feedstocks, anaerobic digestion to produce biogas for wet feedstocks, and gasification for some dry feedstocks.
Biomass potential datasets by region
Europe
JRC-EU-TIMES: Bioenergy potentials for EU and neighbouring countries
https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en/publication/eur-scientific-and-technical-research-reports/jrc-eu-times-model-bioenergy-potentials-eu-and-neighbouring-countries
Categorises potentials and costs for EU28 and neighbouring countries (Iceland, Switzerland, Norway and the Western Balkans countries). Has different scenarios for sustainability. "The High, Medium and Low bioenergy availability scenarios differ in assumptions related to land use, agricultural practices, and protected areas." Data only available as tables in the PDF report. Some people have transcribed these tables to Excel/CSV (ask on the openmod mailing list).
Beware there are known to be some small data transfer mistakes in the PDF report. A new version with machine-readable tables should be published at the end of 2018 / start of 2019 under the name of ENSPRESO.
BioBoost
http://bioboost.eu/
BioBoost Geoportal with maps:
http://bioboost.iung.pl/
Assesses potentials for NUTS3 regions in the EU27 (EU28 minus Croatia) and Switzerland. Data does not appear to be openly available in tabular form; data can be requested by email.
hotmaps
https://gitlab.com/hotmaps/potential
Lead by EURAC. Covers EU28, resolved down to NUTS3. Feedstocks are forestry residues, agricultural residues, livestock effluent and municipal solid waste. Data available as CSV.
S2Biom
http://s2biom.alterra.wur.nl/web/guest/data-downloads
Lignocellulosic biomass potentials down to NUTS3 for Europe. Costs for potentials are also included. Data available as Excel files.
REFUEL
https://ec.europa.eu/energy/intelligent/projects/sites/iee-projects/files/projects/documents/refuel_biomass_resources_potential_and_related_costs.pdf
Potentials with cost-supply curves for each feedstock for EU27 (EU28 minus HR), NO, CH and Ukraine.
Germany
Deutsches Biomasseforschungszentrum (DBFZ) Bioenergie-Atlas
DBFZ Bioenergie-Atlas
