Clifford Chance

Construction Issues in Biomass Projects

5 March 2012

Biomass is without a doubt one of the most hotly talked about 'carbon-neutral' energy sources of the minute. As many jurisdictions aim to increase their use of renewable energy but are faced with an existing stock of thermal plants, resistance from lenders to fully embrace the wind market and with wave and tidal technologies still being in their infancy, replacing the use of fossil fuel in existing and new thermal power plants with biomass is certain to provide a big part of the solution over the coming years and in the longer term. Consequently many developers are taking a renewed interest in biomass projects. Whilst, on the face of it, biomass projects may appear more expensive than their fossil fuel equivalents, once the load factor of the power and government incentives are taken into account, biomass is in fact one of the most economical of all renewable technologies.

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