This collection aims to provide a reference for policy makers and practitioners working to scale up bioenergy in rural areas of sub-Saharan Africa. Energy, agriculture, forestry, environment, finance and business experts all seek for solutions to provide energy and also enhance food security, social welfare and environmental sustainability.
Active forest management has helped to boost bioenergy resources. Swedish experience offers valuable lessons for emerging markets.
This report provides an overview of the challenges and related policy measures required to scale up the deployment of key bioenergy applications.
This study aims to estimate the potential for sustainable bioenergy production in Africa through such systems, based on the evaluation of yields for 15 short-rotation woody crops.
Sustainable bioenergy could even out solar and wind variability and replace fossil fuels for industry, transport and buildings.
This study describes Finland's approach to sustainable biomass supply based on forest wood resources, offering insights to other countries on how to develop forest bioenergy.
Like an increasing number of countries around the world, the Philippines has adopted clear targets for the adoption solar, wind and bioenergy-based power systems, with project development already underway in some cases
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.
This study reviews the bioenergy potential from sugarcane and associated development costs in seven sugar-producing countries in the Southern African Development Community (SADC), aiming to provide a foundation for more detailed country-level studies exploring practical potential.
This report estimates the potential of agricultural residues for bioenergy production in Southeast Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and South America, and highlights best practices for the effective mobilisation of these resources.
This report presents the outcomes of an IRENA workshop, held in São Paulo in March 2023, that explored potential pathways for the development of bioenergy in Latin America and issued key recommendations to facilitate the creation of a bioenergy market in the region.
This study assesses the potential for bioenergy production using various feedstocks such as sugarcane, oil palm, and municipal solid waste in six Caribbean small island developing states – Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, and Guyana.
Biomass has an auspicious future in the world’s supply of renewable energy. REmap 2030, the global roadmap developed by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), foresees a major role for modern, sustainable biomass technologies in efforts to double the share of renewables in the energy mix.
This study presents a methodology to estimate the sustainable energy potential from land restoration in line with the Bonn Challenge, particularly as it relates to African countries.
Southeast Asia has considerable resources to produce liquid biofuels sustainably, using biomass feedstocks that would not cause carbon-dioxide emissions or interfere with food supply. This report offers detailed estimates of biomass resource potential for Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Viet Nam. According to an IRENA assessment, advanced biofuels could provide as much as 7.3 exajoules of primary energy per annum in Southeast Asia by 2050, or half of the region’s total primary bioenergy potential.
Biomass Potential in Africa, a report from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) and the German Biomass Research Centre (DBFZ), compiles recent studies assessing bioenergy potential for the continent, compares their methodologies, benchmarks the results, and identifies the key parameters for those assessments.
This report focuses on the potential for bioenergy in Southeast Asia through studying five countries in the region: Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.
Latin America is one of the regions with the largest shares of renewables in the world, largely thanks to the decades-long contribution of bioenergy and hydropower. In addition, some countries in the region are among the most dynamic markets for solar, wind and geothermal.
This report evaluates Thailand’s options for power generation, transport development, thermal and bioenergy use, and identifies the key challenges in scaling up renewables.
The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) and Sweden’s Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) have examined the potential for renewable power generation based on resource availability all over Africa.
The RRA report presents clear and practical steps to maximise the country’s use of renewables in driving sustainable socio-economic growth.
Cities have emerged as a key focus of global climate mitigation and adaptation strategies. This report highlights resource potential, targets, technology options and planning priorities.
Substantial potential exists to expand both food and fuel supply in a sustainable fashion. This report examines sustainable paths for biofuel development.
Market expansion for renewable mini-grids depends on establishing trustworthy quality infrastructure (QI). Smart technologies to integrate solar and wind power require international and national QI.
This report presents the status of renewable energy employment, both by technology and in selected countries, over the past year. In this fourth edition, the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) finds that renewable energy employed 9.8 million people around the world in 2016 – a 1.1% increase over 2015.