REA Bioenergy Strategy Phase 2: Bioenergy in the UK – A Vision to 2032 and Beyond

In the second instalment of the REA’s Industry-led Bioenergy Strategy we look towards what Bioenergy can deliver out to 2032 and beyond, making a significant contribution to the decarbonisations of the heat, transport and power sectors.

The report finds that the sustainable use of bioenergy is core to the UK meeting its legally binding 5th Carbon Budget.

By increasing its deployment by a factor of 2.5 by 2032, sustainable bioenergy, which is currently the UK’s leading source of renewable energy, has the potential to meet both the Committee on Climate Change’s (CCC) projected shortfall of the 5th Carbon Budget and the impending nuclear gap by providing an additional 117 TWh across heat, transport and power.

Last month, the Committee on Climate Change published their net-zero by 2050 recommendations just three weeks after data from BEIS confirmed that the UK are not on track to meet the 4th and 5th Carbon Budgets. Bioenergy technologies, such as modern biomass boilers, biofuels and anaerobic digestion, offer an immediate and affordable route to tackling these challenges by providing instantaneous carbon reductions in the hard to decarbonise areas of heat and transport.

The report builds upon bioenergy’s already impressive credentials by outlining its potential contribution to the UK’s energy mix in 2032 and beyond. The delivery of the outlined vision would see the demand for bioenergy’s overall energy contribution increase from 5.5% in 2020 to 15% in 2032 creating over 100,000 jobs.