What is Biomass?

Source: IEA BioenergyTask 38 [author Robert Matthews]
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Woody biomass is the organic material derived from plants. Like conventional fossil fuels, biomass is principally a chemical composition of carbon, organic hydrogen molecules, atoms of oxygen, nitrogen and has many of the same combustion characteristics so it is an ideal renewable fuel which can use existing power generation technology.

Biomass is essentially stored solar energy - the sun’s energy is used by plants during photosynthesis to convert atmospheric CO2 to carbon and oxygen.
Unlike fossil fuel, which when released to the air causes high atmospheric concentrations of CO2, biomass takes carbon out of the atmosphere. When the biomass is produced from repetitively and continuously regenerating plantations, it is a sustainable closed carbon cycle with generates electricity without affecting the atmosphere with carbon dioxide levels, as the CO2 produced during biomass combustion is re-absorbed during each cycle of biomass production.

This is especially effective with SRC (short-rotation-coppice) biomass which is grown on land which is not suitable for food production.
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There are various categories of biomass fuels. The main areas in which Aligned Energy has a focus are on energy plantation production of wood (principally for wood pellet or wood chip production for clean power generation), and other sustainable energy crops.

Sustainably produced woody biomass is ideal for renewable base load power, as base loads power from biomass results in a corresponding reductions in base load power generated using coal.