Sustainable Bionergy Potentials for Europe and the Globe

Abstract

In the framework of the EU FP7 project EnerGEO (Earth Observation for Monitoring and Assessment of the Environmental Impact of Energy Use) sustainable energy potentials for agricultural and forest areas were estimated by applying three different model approaches. The EPIC (Environmental Policy Including Climate) yield forecast model was used to estimate crop yields. The Global Forest Model (G4M) was applied to estimate global woody biomass growth. Both models were driven on a European and global scale. Additionally the Biosphere Energy Transfer Hydrology (BETHY/DLR) model was applied to assess Net Primary Productivity (NPP) for agricultural and forest areas in Europe. We transferred our biomass and NPP estimations to energy potentials using conversion factors (i.e. above to below ground and yield to straw ratios), which we also present in this study. For agriculture we focussed on the straw potentials of selected crops (barley, grain maize, oats, rapeseed, rye and wheat), taking into account use competitions. For forests we calculated maximum available energy potentials per year, excluding the tropical belt. Our results for Europe show energy potentials of 9.3 – 15.0 EJ a-1 (forests) and 2.5 – 3.8 EJ a-1 (straw). On a global scale we calculated a maximum available energy potential for forests of 170.0 EJ a-1 and 32.9 EJ a-1 for straw. These results are in concordance with previous studies, albeit somewhat conservative.