Time to encourage biomass growth (BBC) {Viewpoint}

[eppur_se_muova]

VIEWPOINT
David Williams

Biomass energy is being touted as a key player in the push to green Europe's electricity supplies, says David Williams. In this week's Green Room, he argues that although there are promising signs, more needs to be done to encourage large-scale developments.

For some time, biomass has been seen as the emerging sibling of the renewable energy industry.

Despite much of the development behind the industry's technology worldwide, the UK's position at the front of the biomass revolution has been slipping.

Developers have naturally concentrated on cheaper forms of alternative energy, chiefly onshore wind, whilst other countries have stolen a march, with the Chinese particularly active by building hundreds of stations based on UK power plant models.

In recent months, however, we have seen something of a change in the UK, with a backlash against many more established alternative energy sources.
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more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7530794.stm