Is North America seeing an increase in biomass power production?

Although biomass power generation has seen significant growth worldwide, particularly in Europe and some regions of Asia, North America has not experienced much local development.

In the US, the amount of energy produced from wood and fuels derived from it has decreased since 2018. This increased in 2021 as compared to 2020 by 2.7%. Nevertheless, despite this encouraging increase, it still represented less than 1% of the entire net electricity generation. Similar to the United States, just a small portion of the nation’s energy is produced by biomass. In contrast, 12% of the electricity in the UK in 2020 came from biomass.

The lack of support for policy is the major challenge we face in North America. The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 increases the 10-year tax credit period for biomass power. This can boost the performance of new investments. The region’s increase in biomass power generation will be minimal unless significant modifications are made.