January 2011: International Energy Agency (IEA) Bioenergy has released its newest issue of “Bioenergy News” (Volume 22, Number 2), which discusses progress on current initiatives, biorefineries, new publications and upcoming events.

The newsletter opens with an editorial on bioenergy in the UK, stating that over 18 gigawatts of bio-electricity generating capacity will come online in the next decade, buoyed by the UK’s Renewables Obligation (RO), a support mechanism for medium and large-scale generation, and a Feed-in Tariff (FIT) for power generation below five megawatts.

The newsletter continues by discussing collaborations and recent publications, including “The Pellet Handbook: the production and thermal utilisation of biomass pellets,” and a joint project on “Better use of Biomass for Energy” with the IEA Renewable Energy Technology Development (RETD). It also features an article on IEA Task 42: “Biorefineries: Co-production of Fuels, Chemicals, Power and Materials from Biomass,” which discusses the development of a classification system for biomass, biorefinery market deployment, and the task’s activities. The Newsletter closes with a list of recent publications and upcoming events. [Publication: IEA Bioenergy News 22(2)]