Statistical Issues: Bioenergy and Distributed Renewable Energy

A working paper from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), Statistical Issues: Bioenergy and Distributed Renewable Energy, explains methodological issues related to energy accounting for bioenergy and distributed renewable energy sources.

The paper lists uncertainties and gaps that occur in statistics for these energy sources at different levels of the energy-balance table, proposing remedies to some of the identified problems. The remedies are incorporated into the IRENA Statistical Questionnaire that is this year being distributed to Member Countries.

The aim of this methodological work is to improve accuracy of global bioenergy statistics and identify the largest elements of distributed generation, currently rarely covered by national energy statistics. Statistical approaches need to be expanded as soon as possible to take proper account of bioenergy and distributed generation, in order to more accurately portray these growing sources of energy supply and consumption.