Denmark signs agreement on biomass sustainability

The Danish government, along with nine other parties holding seats in parliament, have agreed on legal requirements to ensure the sustainability of biomass used in the country.

The agreement will "provide greater assurance that the biomass used is as sustainable and climate-friendly as possible", the ministry for climate, energy and utilities said. Biomass accounts for the majority of renewable energy used in Denmark.

The new legal requirements replace the voluntary industry agreement — implemented in 2014 and covering plants with capacity of more than 20MW — that has so far regulated the sector, and is in some cases more stringent.

The agreement specifies that biomass consumed must be from legally felled trees, which are to be replaced through replanting. The agreement also stipulates that biomass must not come from countries where forests are in decline, unless from sustainably managed forests or forest residues. Emissions from the production chain must be "kept at a low level" and the agreement also strengthens requirements for documentation.

It will from 2021 cover industrial plants with capacity greater than 20MW, all electricity and heating systems of over 5MW, and biomass importers or manufacturers producing or handling more than 20,000 t/yr of wood pellets.

And the requirements step up from 2023, covering all power, heat and industrial systems of more than 2.5MW, as well as biomass importers or producers with output or throughput of more than 5,000 t/yr of woody biomass.

The ministry of climate, energy and utilities will have the authority to further tighten the limits from 2025. "The requirements are formulated flexibly for reasons of security of supply and consumer heat prices," it said.

Denmark has phased out 80pc of coal-fired power since 2009, energy industry association Dansk Energi said, partly through the conversion of significant coal-fired capacity to biomass. Danish state-controlled utility Orsted converted its 88MW Herning combined heat and power (CHP) plant to wood chip-firing in 2002, its 380MW Studstrup 3 unit from coal to biomass in October 2016 and its 254MW Avedore 1 in December 2016.

Its 95MW Skaerbaek CHP was converted from gas to biomass in 2017, and the coal-to-biomass conversion of its 25MW Asnaes plant — which also has 129MW of heat capacity — was completed in November 2019.

Of the woody biomass consumed in Denmark, around two-thirds is used for electricity and district heating, with the rest used for residential heating, the government said.

By Georgia Gratton