Foreword

December was a successful month for Drax, as they were not only given the go-ahead for their third wood pellet fuelled power station, but they also landed a major contract at the late 2016 capacity auctions. The high seems to have rubbed off on other companies elsewhere, as both BWSC and DONG recently launched biomass power stations, in the latter case converting Denmark’s largest power station to run on biomass instead of fossil fuels. This willingness of energy companies more traditionally associated with fossil fuels to...

Other News this Month Includes:

Policy

• SBRI review to improve innovation to market opportunities for SME's
• Identification of sustainable feedstock resources in the US
• Strong public support for bioenergy in UK according to ETI study
• Forestry Fraud costs $29bn annually

Markets

• Vegetable oil stocks on a low
• Drax wins in capacity market auction

Research & Development

• Switchgrass restores topsoil fertility

Wood & Crop

• Sorghum and pearl millet to fuel 2G biofuel in India
• Long term crop forecasts by EU and US released
• UK wheat supply and demand balance - UK could be losing its net export potential
• US EIA reports on wood pellet data
• DONG converts Danish Avedøre Power station to biomass
• Snetterton generates power
• GB Railfrieght has won a rail haulage contract with Lynemouth Power
• Drax - green light for 3rd unit conversion
• Enviva biomass launches feedstock tracing programme

Other Feedstocks

• Role of Hydrogen in UK energy system - ERP review
• US funding for algae projects
• Lanzatech awarded US DOE funding for biofuel demonstrator