This group covers:

• Electricity, heat and CHP production from biomass and wastes that are exempted from the Waste Incineration Directive
• Energy crops and fuel supply chain issues
• Processed solid biofuels, e.g. wood pellets, chips etc, and
• Small scale and domestic biomass installations.

Main policy areas:

• Biomass strategy
• Biomass fuel supply chains
• Optimal land use
• Alternative energy uses of biomass
• Impacts of fuel uses of biomass on food supply
• Biomass conversion technologies

Participation and personnel

Subject to the bye-laws, any REA member is able to participate in any sector group. 

There are currently over 150 companies and over 200 individuals.

Chairman & Nominated Director

Graham Stowell of Bronzeoak Group Ltd.

Responsible REA policy director

Gaynor Hartnell

Activities

The group works on supply side issues from the growing, collecting and processing of fuels, through to end-use applications, including domestic and industrial heat production, electricity generation and combined heat and power. Biomass can be utilised in both dedicated plant, and plants which co-fire biomass with other fuels.

The group has provided significant input into the Biomass Task Force and commented on the FES heat study report.
The two most closely related groups are Bio-energy and the Renewable Transport Fuels Group.  The Bio-energy group deals with feedstocks that fall under the Waste Framework Directive and are therefore encompassed by the Waste Incineration Directive, as well as landfill gas, sewage gas and anaerobic digestion.  Anaerobic digestion falls somewhat between the two stools, as its fuel source can be either clean biomass or energy crops, or wastes.  The digestate produced is a valuable by-product used as a fertiliser and soil conditioner; therefore there are synergies with agriculture and the supply side of biomass.  Some of the co-products from biofuel production are likely to be used as feedstocks for heat and or power production, so inevitably there will be close linkage with the Renewable Transport Fuels Group.

Meetings and events

The REA's BIoEnergy Conference is the largest event run by the REA.  It is held over two days, and brings together the biomass, biogas, energy from waste and transport fuel sectors.  There were over 360 delegates at the 2006 event, which was held in Weston-Super-Mare.  Bioenergy 2007 took place in Oxford.

Meetings are usually held three times a year, with an aim to coordinate these where possible with related sector groups in order to reduce members’ travelling time.
Primary Biomass meeting agendas, minutes and related documents can be viewed here.