The Australian bioenergy and energy from waste market

This November 2015 market report from the Australian Clean Energy Finance Corporation presents research indicating that the Australian bioenergy and energy from waste market is under developed but has considerable potential. CEFC estimates that the Australian bioenergy and energy from waste investment opportunity to 2020 is between AU$3.5 billion and AU$5 billion, potentially doubling the level of installed capacity at time of publishing.

The reports argues that bioenergy and energy from waste electricity generation technologies are cost-competitive where feedstock is
available at low cost or as a revenue source, at larger scales and where cogeneration of heat offers opportunities to
reduce other costs. As well as delivering baseload renewable energy, co-benefits from bioenergy and energy from waste include lower waste disposal costs and reduced pollution from particulate emissions, sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides compared with fossil fuel generation.

This report focuses on three areas where there are significant opportunities for investment in bioenergy and energy from waste in Australia, which are:

• in the urban waste industry, driven by a combination of rising landfill gate fees and falling technology costs
• in the intensive livestock and food processing industries, driven by readily available feedstock from process waste, higher electricity prices and demand for on-site electricity, heat or steam
• in energy from plantation forest residues, particularly for export as wood pellets, given low-cost and readily available feedstock.