Market Conditions for Bioenergy in the European Union: Facing Barriers and Finding Ways to Success

Supportive legislation and improving technologies are making bioenergy an increasingly attractive energy source for Europe both economically and environmentally. However, abundant resources remain untapped across many member states in the European Union (EU). The Bioenergy Network of Excellence (NoE) entitled Overcoming Barriers to Bioenergy in Europe is charged with the task to identify critical barriers for bioenergy, and to formulate strategies that will expand bioenergy in the EU. This report produced by the Environment and Socio-economics Work Package in the Bioenergy NoE describes an investigation of barriers related to market conditions for bioenergy. Taking an innovative approach to barrier analysis, the Environment and Socio-economics Work Package decided to evaluate theoretical barriers in a set of case studies to verify the relevance of different barriers. The procedure sketched for the barriers analysis involved several steps. First, formulate theoretical barriers expected to be important and manageable. Second, check if the barriers explain the difference between success and unrealised potential in the set of case studies. Third, if the barriers are not sufficient to explain the difference, return to the theoretical barriers. Fourth, otherwise, check if the understanding of the critical barriers is able to assist in transforming case studies from unrealised potential to success