Bioenergy Could Meet 20 Percent of Global Energy Needs by 2050, Study Says

Energy produced from plants and trees could meet as much as 20 percent of the planet’s growing energy demand by 2050, including half of that production from biomass plantations alone, according to a new study. But that increased reliance on crops would require a large expansion of agricultural land and irrigation worldwide. In a series of computer simulations, researchers at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research calculated that 25 to 175 exajoules (1 exajoule = 10 ¹⁸ joules) of bioenergy could be produced annually depending on land use regulations and water availability, but that the higher end of the scale would come at significant environmental costs. The world’s energy consumption is expected to double from 500 to 1,000 exajoules over the next four decades, researchers say. “Without energy production from biomass, according to many studies, ambitious goals of climate protection would be hardly achievable,” said Wolfgang Lucht, research domain chair for the Potsdam Institute. “How much energy can be produced at which environmental costs therefore is a critical and controversial question.”