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8th World Conference on Photovoltaic Energy Conversion; 1645-1648, The AgroFossilFree project promotes fossil-energy-free technologies and strategies (FEFTS) in the agricultural sector by integrating various stakeholder initiatives and disseminating knowledge on FEFTS in agriculture. Applications boosting RES integration in important agricultural sectors, notably solar technology, are given considerable attention. The project's main goal is to create a platform where farmers, advisors, academics, business partners, and other stakeholders may discover pertinent information about FEFTS in agriculture. The AgroFossilFree initiative works to reduce the use of fossil fuels in all aspects of farming, which supports the EU Green Deal and Farm to Fork strategies. By encouraging the productive sharing of novel technologies, it helps to bridge the gap between the available FEFTS and common agricultural practices throughout the EU. By facilitating the effective flow of innovative information and ideas amongst stakeholders, it contributes to close the gap between the available FEFTS and common EU agricultural practices, thus European agriculture could become more environmentally, socioeconomically, and energetically sustainable. The European agricultural sector can support and abide by policies to reduce the use of fossil energy, the relevant legal and regulatory frameworks, and sustainable food production practices with the help of the knowledge that is gathered, classified, and presented to actors in the agricultural field. This article provides an update on the European Commission founded AgroFossilFree project.

Increased energy efficiency and/or optimised energy management and/or integrate a higher share of renewables. Thus, the term energy communities in SHAREs refers to all forms of collective actions by and for consumers such as cooperatives, collective purchase groups or other consumer-driven collective actions. Six countries are involved in the project implementation: Austria, Germany, Croatia, Bulgaria, Georgia and Hungary. In order to achieve a clean energy transition, all consumer groups need to be involved and convinced to contribute to the energy market. Founders of energy communities are by definition very motivated and “on-board” but often lack the tools to engage with other consumer groups. The concept of the SHAREs project is simple and straightforward - to create a Gateway for those interested in setting up collective actions to help them initiate an action and grow. The Gateway will consist of: (1) A country-specific implementation toolkit to equip local heroes with the technical and logistic capacity to set up their energy community (legal framework, such as master contracts, technical and IT solutions, business models, etc.); (2) The building blocks of a tailored “pick-and-mix” communication campaign to enable local heroes to promote their idea effectively to their most relevant stakeholder groups. The Gateway will combine the insights and tools from existing initiatives as well as input of established energy communities (pioneers) and policy developers. After having been put to test and refined in at least 20 aspiring energy communities in 6 European countries, the Gateway will be broadly disseminated to relevant stakeholders all over Europe., Proceedings of the 30th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 9-12 May 2022, Online, pp. 314-316

The EU H2020 project REPLACE (Contract No. 847087) aims to boost the phase-out of inefficient and old heating and cooling systems by targeting consumers, investors/owners as well as intermediaries (installers, plumbers, and chimney sweepers) and helps them to make independently informed decisions. All activities proposed by REPLACE aim to inform and motivate consumers to replace their old and inefficient HC appliances with better, greener alternatives with the benefit of monetary savings and improvements in air-quality, comfort, safety, and security of supply. REPLACE also addresses fuel poverty and reduces the risk of a heating crisis by supporting the use of regional renewable energy sources (such as solar, ambient heat or biomass) and equipment produced in the EU (biomass boilers, heat pumps, solar collectors, DH equipment)., Proceedings of the 30th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 9-12 May 2022, Online, pp. 449-452

The AgroFossilFree project supports Fossil-Energy-Free Technologies and Strategies (FEFTS) in agriculture by coordinating several stakeholder actions and providing information on FEFTS in agriculture. Thereby, special emphasis is placed on applications promoting RES integration in major agricultural sectors, particularly biomass. The core objective of the project is to set-up an online platform where farmers, advisors, researchers, industrial partners and other actors can find useful information on FEFTS in agriculture. The AgroFossilFree project contributes to the High Level EU Strategies (i.e. EU Green Deal and Farm to Fork strategy) by aiming to decrease the use of fossil energy in any farming process. It also contributes to closing the gap between the available FEFTS and the everyday EU agricultural practices by promoting the effective exchange of novel ideas and exchanging information between stakeholders. If this gap closes, European agriculture could become more sustainable with minimum energy, environmental and socioeconomic impacts. With the knowledge that is collected, classified, and presented to actors in the agricultural field, the European agricultural sector can promote and comply with fossil energy use reduction policies, the related legal and regulatory frameworks and sustainable food production practices. This paper presents the status of the AgroFossilFree project which is funded by the European Commission's Horizon 2020 program., Proceedings of the 30th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 9-12 May 2022, Online, pp. 402-405

The DiBiCoo project (dibicoo.org) supports the European biogas/biomethane industry and the biogas development in developing and emerging countries by preparing markets for the export of sustainable biogas/biomethane technologies from Europe to developing and emerging countries. This is achieved by the development and application of innovative digital and non-digital support and matchmaking tools and actions, by knowledge transfer and capacity building as well as by the preparation of demo cases up to the prefeasibility stage. This will increase the share of renewable energies, both in Europe and in importing countries. This paper addresses biogas-relevant framework conditions in the importing and exporting countries, the status of research and development needs of biogas technologies in the importing countries as well as export opportunities for European countries., Proceedings of the 30th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 9-12 May 2022, Online, pp. 19-23

38th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 1645-1649, The TRACER project supports a number of coal-intensive regions around Europe to design (or re-design) their Research and Innovation (R&I) strategies in order to facilitate their transition towards a sustainable energy system. The TRACER consortium consists of different target regions: South East Bulgaria, North West Bohemia - Czech Republic, Lusatian Lignite District - Germany, Western Macedonia - Greece, Upper Silesian Coalfield - Poland, West Region, Jiu Valley - Romania, Wales - UK, Kolubara - Serbia, Donetsk - Ukraine. Core activities of TRACER include the implementation of an EDP (Entrepreneurial Discovery Process) to mobilise a wide range of stakeholders in each target region to develop an appropriate governance structure and to bring regional stakeholders together to discuss and agree on a shared vision and priorities for coal transition. R&I strategies, industrial roadmaps and decision support tools will be developed jointly with key stakeholders of the TRACER target regions. Further TRACER activities include the identification and analysis of best practice examples of successful and ambitious transition processes in coal intensive regions, a detailed assessment of social, environmental and technological challenges, the elaboration of guidelines on how to mobilise investment as well as dedicated activities to stimulate R&I cooperation among coal intensive regions in Europe and beyond.

The Upgrade DH project supports the upgrading and retrofitting process of DH systems in different climate regions of Europe, covering various countries: Bosnia-Herzegovina, Denmark, Croatia, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, and The Netherlands. The objective of the project is to initiate the upgrading process of concrete DH systems in each of the target countries, the so-called Upgrade DH demonstration cases (demo cases). The gained knowledge and experiences are further replicated to other European countries and DH systems (replication cases) in order to leverage the impact. Core activities of the Upgrade DH project include the collection of the best upgrading measures and tools, the support of the upgrading process for selected district heating networks, the organisation of capacity building measures about DH upgrading, financing and business models, as well as the development of national and regional action plans. In addition, an image raising campaign for modern DH networks is carried out in the Upgrade DH project. The outcome is the initiation of district heating upgrading process in the above-mentioned target countries and beyond. The present paper summarizes the results of the project, which is close to its finalization.

38th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 1691-1693, The AgroFossilFree project is supporting Fossil-Energy-Free Technologies and Strategies (FEFTS) in agriculture by coordinating several stakeholder actions and by providing information on FEFTS in agriculture. Thereby, special emphasis is placed on applications of photovoltaics (PV) in agriculture. The core objective of the project is to set-up an online platform for farmers, advisors, researchers, industrial partners and other actors on which they can find useful information on FEFTS in agriculture. The AgroFossilFree project contributes to the High Level EU Strategies (i.e. EU Green Deal and Farm to Fork strategy) as it aims to decrease the use of fossil energy in any farming process. It also contributes to close the gap between the available FEFTS and the everyday EU agricultural practices by promoting effective exchange of novel ideas and by exchanging information between research, industry, extension services and the farming community. If this gap closes, European agriculture could become more sustainable with minimum energy, environmental and socioeconomic impacts. With the knowledge that is collected, classified and presented to actors in the agricultural field, the European agricultural sector is able to promote and comply with the fossil energy use reduction policies, the related legal and regulatory frameworks and sustainable food production practices. This paper presents the current status of the AgroFossilFree project which is funded by the Horizon 2020 Programme of the European Commission.

The EU H2020 project REPLACE (Contract No. 847087) aims to boost the phase-out of inefficient and old heating and cooling systems by targeting consumers, investors/owners as well as intermediaries (installers, plumbers, and chimney sweepers) and helps them to make independently informed decisions. All activities proposed by REPLACE aim to inform and motivate consumers to replace their old and inefficient HC appliances with better, greener alternatives with the benefit of monetary savings and improvements in air-quality, comfort, safety, and security of supply. REPLACE also addresses fuel poverty and reduces the risk of a heating crisis by supporting the use of regional renewable energy sources (such as solar, ambient heat or biomass) and equipment produced in the EU (biomass boilers, heat pumps, solar collectors, DH equipment)., Proceedings of the 29th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 26-29 April 2021, Online, pp. 1215-1219

The DiBiCoo project (dibicoo.org) supports the European biogas/biomethane industry and the biogas development in developing and emerging countries by preparing markets for the export of sustainable biogas/biomethane technologies from Europe to developing and emerging countries. This is achieved by the development and application of innovative digital and non-digital support and matchmaking tools and actions, by knowledge transfer and capacity building as well as by the preparation of demo cases up to the prefeasibility stage. This will increase the share of renewable energies, both in Europe and in importing countries. This paper addresses biogas-relevant framework conditions in the importing and exporting countries, the status of research and development needs of biogas technologies in the importing countries as well as export opportunities for European countries., Proceedings of the 29th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 26-29 April 2021, Online, pp. 1423-1426

The major objective of the BABET-REAL 5 Project was to develop an alternative solution for the production of ethanol from lignocellulosic biomass at small-industrial-scale (30,000 tdm/year) suitable for a variety of feedstocks, rural areas and countries in Europe and worldwide. During the project, it was found out, that the initial 2G bioethanol concept needs to be regarded as energy-driven biorefinery in the end. This biorefinery can be technically self-sufficient in heat and electricity (if the selling price of electricity is the same as or lower than the purchasing price), and can produce different combinations of energy products (biofuel, biogas, bioliquids), depending on the economic and market conditions in a given region/country. The presented results include the economic perspective, social impacts and also the environmental impact (measured in an LCA). It can be said already that the realisation of the BABET-REAL5 concept (at the moment at TRL 5) would be beneficial in all investigated perspectives and would thus deserve more support to develop the concept until market readiness., Proceedings of the 28th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 6-9 July 2020, Virtual, pp. 974-976

In order to meet the climate change target of limiting global warming to 1.5 °C as well as the target of a full decarbonisation by 2050, systems for space heating based on fossil fuels must be phased out as soon as possible. This applies to oil boilers, but also to natural gas boilers, as well as to the supply of district heating (DH) based on fossil fuels. Current fossil fuel heating sources need to be substituted in the future by a broad mix of different renewable energy sources, including biomass, solar thermal energy, free energy, geothermal energy, and renewable electricity. Biomass is the dominant renewable energy source for space heating today and will play also a crucial role in a fully decarbonised space heating scenario in Europe. The paper introduces the current ongoing activities of the European Technology and Innovation Platform on Renewable Heating and Cooling (RHC-ETIP) which has recently released the “2050 vision for 100 % renewable heating and cooling in Europe”. It furthermore presents the EU H2020 project REPLACE which aims to boost the phase-out of inefficient and old heating and cooling systems by targeting consumers, investors/owners as well as intermediaries (installers, plumbers, and chimney sweepers) and helps them to make informed decisions., Proceedings of the 28th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 6-9 July 2020, Virtual, pp. 930-932

The DiBiCoo project supports the European biogas/biomethane industry and the biogas development in developing and emerging countries by preparing markets for the export of sustainable biogas/biomethane technologies from Europe to developing and emerging countries. This is achieved by the development and application of innovative digital and non-digital support and matchmaking tools and actions, by knowledge transfer and capacity building as well as by the preparation of demo cases up to the prefeasibility stage. This will increase the share of renewable energies, both in Europe and in importing countries. The paper addresses the status of biogas in developing and emerging countries and the related research and development needs.

The BE-Rural project supports the establishment of regional and local bio-based economies by involving relevant actors in the development of bioeconomy strategies and roadmaps. The target regions of BE-Rural are in Eastern and Southeastern Europe: Stara Zagora (Bulgaria), Szczecin Lagoon and Vistula Lagoon (Poland), Strumica (North Macedonia), Covasna (Romania) as well as Vidzeme and Kurzeme (Latvia). The characteristics of the selected regions are analysed, best practices identified, and suitable business models defined. This analysis will help to assess the 'bioeconomy potential' of each selected region. Based on that, a series of regional Open Innovation Platforms will be implemented to kick-start the co-creation process, bringing together key stakeholders from academia, policy, business, and civil society to develop ideas and capitalize on their bioeconomy potential. These activities include research & innovation capacity building workshops, educational seminars and webinars, summer schools and bio-based Pop-up stores. A knowledge network will be established to share knowledge, lessons learned and best practices from the Open Innovation Platforms at an inter-regional level, to close the information gap on issues related to sustainability and to increase capacities of regional authorities and stakeholders., Proceedings of the 28th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 6-9 July 2020, Virtual, pp. 982-986

The Upgrade DH project supports the upgrading and retrofitting process of DH systems in different climate regions of Europe, covering various countries: Bosnia-Herzegovina, Denmark, Croatia, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, and The Netherlands. The objective of the project is to initiate the upgrading process of concrete DH systems in each of the target countries, the so-called Upgrade DH demonstration cases (demo cases). The gained knowledge and experiences will be further replicated to other European countries and DH systems (replication cases) in order to leverage the impact. Core activities of the Upgrade DH project include the collection of the best upgrading measures and tools, the support of the upgrading process for selected district heating networks, the organisation of capacity building measures about DH upgrading, financing and business models, as well as the development of national and regional action plans. In addition, an image raising campaign for modern DH networks is carried out in the Upgrade DH project. The outcome is the initiation of district heating upgrading process in the above-mentioned target countries and beyond. The present paper summarizes the results of the pre-feasibility studies of the demo cases.

With a production of about 180 million tons Germany is still and by far the leading producer of lignite worldwide. More than 30 % of this production takes place in the Lusatian Lignite District and without any doubt mining is the economic driving force of the region - despite ongoing structural change. In the framework of the Horizon 2020 project FORBIO (www.forbio-project.eu) agronomic and techno-economic feasibility studies were elaborated to in-vestigate the potential of establishing value chains for energy crops to produce biomethane as a contribution to agricul-tural reclamation of post-mining landscapes. Agriculture on reclaimed ground aims to strengthen the efficiency of farms affected by mining and to improve their viability. However, overall yields remain low to medium and there is hardly any food production and cultivation of special crops on reclamation sites. Therefore, farmers are interested in low-risk production alternatives with good earnings, such as undemanding, drought-tolerant and fast-growing energy crops like Sorghum or Sudan grass. The investigated case study was based on a 6-year crop rotation system on more than 7,000 ha of post-mining land in the Lusatian Lignite District (involving Lucerne, Sorghum, winter wheat and winter rye) for biomass feedstock production. The feedstock is used in a newly constructed biogas plant with electrical capacity of 3.1 MW and an integrated biomethane up-grading unit. Financial viability was calculated for an investment amortization period of 20 years. It was found that under the current market situation with rather low fossil fuel prices, investment in energy cropping for biomethane on the selected reclamation sites is not fully viable yet. An investment of 89 million EUR leads to total revenues of 85 million EUR. About 50 % of costs during the calculated operation period of 20 years are thereby allocated to feedstock production (530 EURha-1yr-1 for Lucerne silage, 750 EURha-1yr-1for Sorghum silage) with limited potential for cost reduction by the farmers. Finally, an outlook is presented for energy crops grown on post-mining landscapes providing feedstock opportunities for future innovative value chains in biorefineries integrating the production of bioenergy, materials and higher value chemicals. Such inno-vative green technologies can be the initial spark for establishing a new bio-based industries in the Lusatian Lignite region after the phase-out of coal mining, thus serving to cushion partially the declining fossil-based economy., Proceedings of the 27th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 27-30 May 2019, Lisbon, Portugal, pp. 1636-1641

The BIOPLAT-EU project will promote and support the uptake of sustainable bioenergy projects on marginal, underutilized and contaminated lands (MUC lands). These lands cannot be used for food production or for recreational and conservation purposes, but in some cases, they still retain the potential to produce biomass for non-food purposes. Moreover, such use of these lands is not known to stakeholders, therefore the project will promote and inform about such opportunities through a web-based platform which will include a public user-friendly tool using geographic information system (webGIS tool) that will assess the environmental, social and techno-economic sustainability aspects of defined value chains for bioenergy production on MUC lands and through stakeholder engagement activities. In order to remove legal barriers for the uptake of such projects, communication activities with the responsible authorities will be organised. As for the technical and financial barriers, the project will support stakeholders and give guidance on how such projects can reach implementation stage. Moreover, it will link biomass producers and processors with investors and will guide them on how to make their projects bankable., Proceedings of the 27th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 27-30 May 2019, Lisbon, Portugal, pp. 1921-1924

Can the production of 2G bioethanol be really sustainable when all parameters (a.o. soil carbon, climate change) that could have an influence on the potential biomass are thoroughly considered? When looking for agricultural residues that take into account all sustainability aspects, the available potential is reduced considerably. Still, it is possible to find promising regions and crops that make the sustainable production of 2G bioethanol possible. In the South-East of Germany, in Bavaria, it was investigated whether regions can be found, in which more than 30,000 tdm/y are available in a 50-km radius and the preconditions for a sustainable feedstock are fulfilled. For all 96 official districts of Bavaria, the theoretical, technical and agronomical potential, as well as the competitive use was analysed for the feedstocks wheat straw, rye straw, barley straw, oat straw, rapeseed straw, triticale straw and corn stover. It could be shown, that in the region Lower Bavaria, in two 50-km radius areas between the cities Landshut and Passau enough wheat straw (~ 121,000 tdm/y) and corn stover (~ 172,000 tdm/y) is available for the production of 2G bioethanol. Furthermore, it was found, that in Bavaria these amounts (i.e. the yields) can be also be provided when the local consequences of climate change are considered, as the negative impacts (i. e. heavy precipitation or heat waves) are presumably compensated by positive impacts (i. e. longer vegetation period, more CO2 for plants growth). Assuming the use of biofuels in agricultural vehicles, a first calculation of the environmental impact of the feedstock supply revealed that per supply ton of wheat straw 11.0 kg CO2eq need to be taken into account, and 18.9 kg CO2eq per supply ton of corn stover., Proceedings of the 26th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 14-17 May 2018, Copenhagen, Denmark, pp. 1299-1306

Currently, biorefineries have followed the conception of oil refineries, using a single feedstock (oil refinery: crude oil) in huge processing capacities to achieve maximum economy of scale. This approach has been applied to biomass and, currently, a broad spectrum of different large-scale biorefineries, using a single feedstock, are under development (DuPont, Abengoa, Beta Renewables, POETDSM, Pure Vision, BP Biofuels, among other). Under such conditions, opportunities for installing large-scale biorefineries in most rural areas in Europe, LAC countries and worldwide are scarce, due to high capital costs required and barriers for sustainable biomass supply and distribution. Conversely, small scale biorefineries will require a significantly lower CAPEX, and solve several challenges their larger competitors are facing. In Bavaria, Germany, the possibility to use residual grass as feedstock in a biorefinery is subject to investigation. It could be shown that residual grass (in the target region Straubing-Bogen) has a theoretical economic potential for the production of a high-value amino acid product, together with two fertilizer products. The technical concept to do so shows the process steps which include extrusion, filtration and concentration in the first part of the biorefinery, and the use of a tailored ion exchanger in the second step. The use of this concept would bring an added-value to the local waste disposal association. However, until today the only missing part to finish the study, a small-sale silage concept, could not be realized. So, it can be said that (garden) grass could be a promising feedstock, yet only if a novel small-scale silage concept can be elaborated., Proceedings of the 26th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 14-17 May 2018, Copenhagen, Denmark, pp. 1094-1098

Many Southeast European countries have high biomass potentials, but they are often not or only ineffi-ciently used for local energy supply and regional economic development. The creation of bioenergy villages can facil-itate the promotion of local biomass production and use. A bioenergy village is a village, municipality, settlement or community or a part of it which produces and uses most of its energy demand from local biomass sources as well as from other renewable energy sources. The objective of the EU Horizon 2020 funded project BioVill is to support the development of regional bioenergy concepts and the establishment of bioenergy villages in Croatia, Macedonia, Ro-mania, Serbia and Slovenia. In these countries, suitable biomass value chains are identified, and the market uptake of bioenergy technologies is supported, taking local and regional needs into consideration. Important is the local sourcing of biomass in order to add value for the local and regional economy. A key focus of the BioVill project is on the support of seven selected target villages on their way to become bioenergy villages. Thereby, experiences gained in Austria, Germany and other European countries are transferred to the South-Eastern European partners. After two years of BioVill project implementation, concrete bioenergy projects are proposed in the target villages and their technical and economical feasibility was assessed. To present this process, the paper describes in more detail the proposed bioenergy projects in two BioVill target villages, namely in Kichevo in Macedonia and in Dole pri Litiji in Slovenia., Proceedings of the 26th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 14-17 May 2018, Copenhagen, Denmark, pp. 1359-1364

Land application is often a routine part of manure management. Not only is it a practical means of disposing large amounts of poultry wastes, it is an efficient use of an organic fertilizer. Unfortunately, poultry manure may contain a large number of house fly larvae and pupae that can become a nuisance if they complete development. Mechanical incorporation of poultry manure is often recommended to help reduce odor; it has also been though to reduce the potential for a fly outbreak. This study examined fly survival following burial in field soil at depths of 0, 1, 3, 6, 9, and 12 in. One quarter of the adult house flies developing from pupae were able to crawl through 12 in. of soil to reach the surface. Survival of flies buried closer to the surface was greater. We compared house fly survival following disk, harrow, and moldboard plow incorporation of manure to surface application. No method of incorporation was better than the surface application. Adult flies reached outbreak proportions 10 days following application and the outbreak lasted another 11 days

Seasonal dispersal of Carcinops pumilio (Erichson) was evaluated using two trapping methods-a black-light pitfall trap and a mesh-bottomed trap placed on poultry manure. The black-light trap collected larger numbers than the mesh-bottomed trap from March through June. The mesh-bottomed trap gathered larger numbers of beetles from June through August and numbers were less variable throughout the year. Often, when very low numbers of beetles were recovered from manure cores, large numbers of beetles could be collected with the black-light trap suggesting that beetle density may not be an important factor in dispersal behavior. The greatest dispersal in the dispersal arenas (≈90%) occurred using beetles collected by both trap types in June 2000. Beginning in March and ending in August, a cyclic rise and then fall pattern in both laboratory dispersal and beetle collections was observed. Trap collection patterns were similar in both years of the study. In January and March, we were unable to prevent dispersal behavior of beetles captured in black-light traps. However, in May, after beetles had been in a dispersal phase for several months, we were able to suppress dispersal. In contrast, dispersal behavior among beetles captured with the mesh-bottomed trap did not change following the photoperiod-altered exposure

Many South East European countries have high biomass potentials, but they are often not or only ineffi-ciently used for local energy supply and regional economic development. The objective of the BioVill project, funded by the EU´s Horizon2020 programme, is to support the development of regional bioenergy concepts and the establish-ment of “Bioenergy Villages” in Croatia, Macedonia, Romania, Serbia and Slovenia. This will be achieved by identi-fying suitable biomass value chains according to local and regional needs and transferring existing experiences in Aus-tria, Germany and other European countries to the South-Eastern European partners. Thereby the market uptake of domestic bioenergy supply chains will be increased and the role of locally produced biomass as a main source of energy supply and added value for the local and regional economy will be strengthened. The present paper introduces the project´s step-wise approach and presents its intermediate results and achievements, followed by a section addressing the transfer process, a core element of the project.

In the EU around 40% of bio-waste (organic fractions of municipal solid waste including food waste) still goes to landfills. In some Member States this waste is almost completely landfilled. An estimation is that about one-third of Europe`s 2020 targets for renewable energy in transport could be met by using biogas produced from bio-waste (including food waste), and around 2% of the EU`s overall renewable energy target could be met if all bio-waste were turned into energy.Modern and environmentally friendly waste management is still not introduced in many European cities and regions. This problem is tackled by the Bin2Grid project which promotes the “food waste to biomethane” concept in four large European cities in order to serve as flagship examples for other cities.The objective of the Bin2Grid project is to support biomethane production and its use in transport by using segregated food waste from the food and beverage industry, catering sector, and from households(MSW) as feedstock. Focus of the Bin2Grid project is on the development of value chain concepts for four European cities: Zagreb (Croatia), Skopje (Macedonia), Malaga (Spain), and Paris (France). The Bin2Grid project highlights the multiple environmental benefits of source-separate waste collection and conversion of that feedstock into biomethane, in comparison to other treatment methods (landfilling, incineration, MBT, composting). A Benchmark Tool was developed by the project and is presented in this paper., Proceedings of the 25th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 12-15 June 2017, Stockholm, Sweden, pp. 204-209

Perennial Short Rotation Woody Crops ("SRC" or "Short Rotation Coppice") are woody species such as willow, poplar, robinia and others. Their cultivation is a good alternative to annual energy crops and can be complementary to existing agricultural systems. Aside from being harvested for energy production, the cultivation of SRCs has many potential benefits compared to annual crops. For instance, they may help to improve water quality, enhance biodiversity, provide ecosystem services (hunting, beekeeping, water supply, fire protection), mitigate animal diseases between farms, prevent erosion, reduce artificial input materials (fertilizers, pesticides) and mitigate climate change due to carbon storage. These advantages have to be promoted to produce sustainable woodchips from SRC, enhancing the positive impacts of SRC to the environment. Thereby, the following sustainability aspects must be considered: SRC has most positive impacts on marginal land and especially as structural elements in the landscape, bordering for instance fields, roads, and electricity lines. The sustainability of the supply chains is specifically addressed in the project SRCplus. The SRCplus project contributes to remove the non-technological barriers of SRC development in Europe through the support of implementing local SRC supply chains. Thereby, synergies with other agricultural uses, ecosystem services and nature conservation measures are exploited. This paper presents first results of the SRCplus project, and discusses sustainability aspects of SRC., Proceedings of the 24th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 6-9 June 2016, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, pp. 264-269

In Europe the demand of biomass for the whole bioeconomy is increasing year by year. In some cases, this biomass come from non-European countries. The EU is already a net importer of biomass for bioenergy and imports could be even more relevant in the near future. Therefore, it is important to guarantee that this biomass supply from outside the EU is being done in a sustainable way and that negative environmental and socio-economic impacts are minimised. The project BioTrade2020plus has the aim of providing guidelines for the development of a European Bioenergy Trade Strategy for 2020 and beyond. It has analyzed in depth the role of lignocellulosic biomass (woody resources, agricultural residues and cellulosic crops) imports from six selected sourcing regions: North America (Southeast United States), South America (Brazil, Colombia), East Europe (Ukraine), Southeast Asia (Indonesia) and East Africa (Kenya). It has considered availability and sustainability constrains as well as existing strategies in these sourcing regions. All this info is being integrated in an interactive tool available on the BioTrade2020plus webpage., Proceedings of the 24th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 6-9 June 2016, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, pp. 1356-1363

It is widely acknowledged that sound legal and regulatory frameworks for bioenergy are needed in African countries to ensure environmentally, economically and socially sustainable production, promotion and use of biofuels. In order to minimise risks and maximise benefits, in recent years several African countries and regional organisations have launched initiatives to establish sound policy frameworks for biofuels in order to ensure environmentally, economically and socially sustainable production, promotion and use of biofuels.With the publication of the National Biofuels Policy and Strategy (NBPS) in 2009, the implementation of several bioenergy related regulations, as well as the on-going work on the Biofuel Sustainability Framework, the Government of Mozambique is leading the way for the creation of an enabling environment to facilitate private investment in bioenergy projects. Other countries from Southeast Africa (South Africa, Malawi, Tanzania) have started the policy development process and acknowledge the need for a realistic, stable and long-term policy and regulatory framework., Proceedings of the 23rd European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 1-4 June 2015, Vienna, Austria, pp. 1577-1582

Perennial Short Rotation Woody Crops (“SRC” or “Short Rotation Coppice”) are woody species such as willow, poplar, robinia and others. Their cultivation is a good alternative to annual energy crops and can be complementary to existing agricultural systems. Aside from being harvested for energy production, the cultivation of SRCs has many potential benefits compared to annual crops. For instance, they may help to improve water quality, enhance biodiversity, provide ecosystem services (hunting, beekeeping, water supply, fire protection), mitigate animal diseases between farms, prevent erosion, reduce artificial input materials (fertilizers, pesticides) and mitigate climate change due to carbon storage. These advantages have to be promoted to produce sustainable woodchips from SRC, enhancing the positive impacts of SRC to the environment. Thereby, the following sustainability aspects must be considered: SRC has most positive impacts on marginal land and especially as structural elements in the landscape, bordering for instance fields, roads, and electricity lines. The sustainability of the supply chains is specifically addressed in the project SRCplus. The SRCplus project contributes to remove the non-technological barriers of SRC development in Europe through the support of implementing local SRC supply chains. Thereby, synergies with other agricultural uses, ecosystem services and nature conservation measures are exploited. This paper presents first results of the SRCplus project, and discusses sustainability aspects of SRC., Proceedings of the 23rd European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 1-4 June 2015, Vienna, Austria, pp. 117-122

Public support is a key to reaching the EU's 2020 RES (Renewable Energy Sources) target. Community RES projects can turn public opposition into support for new RES installations and infrastructure, including grids. Research demonstrates that if citizens are actively involved in RES projects from the initial proposal, and the economic and social benefits of such projects are shared, public acceptance is far higher. Community ownership of renewable energy plants can mobilise local investment, improve the acceptability and increase local community benefits of renewable energy. There are several European examples of how citizen involvement has accelerated the development of RES. However, the share of community owned renewable energy plants differs a lot in the EU countries. In Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries, upfront financing is a particularly large barrier to achieving a higher share of RES. The problem of enabling legislation for and financing of community RES projects at the European, national and local level is addressed by the CO-POWER project (Enabling legislation to increase acceptance for RES projects across Europe) which is supported by the Intelligent Energy for Europe Programme of the European Union. The project is raising awareness among policy makers on the benefits of community RES ownership.This paper gives an overview on community energy models and recommendations for legal frameworks., Proceedings of the 23rd European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 1-4 June 2015, Vienna, Austria, pp. 1457-1459

The BioTrade2020plus project has the aim of providing guidelines for the development of a European Bioenergy Trade Strategy for 2020 and beyond. This strategy aims to ensure that imported biomass feedstock is sustainably sourced and avoids distortion of other markets. It will also be important to find a basis for a balanced approach between promoting the use of domestic biomass, while also keeping EU markets open for sustainable imports. The project will focus on lignocellulosic biomass (woody resources, agricultural residues and cellulosic crops), from the following sourcing regions: North America (Southeast United States), South America (Brazil, Colombia), East Europe (Ukraine), Southeast Asia (Indonesia/Malaysia) and East Africa (Kenya/Mozambique). This paper presents the first outcomes and lessons learnt during the first half of the project. This also includes some preliminary results of the analysis of the potentials from some of the above mentioned sourcing regions and key sustainability indicators of current and future lignocellulosic biomass and bioenergy carriers (wood chips, pellets, torrefied biomass and pyrolysis oil)., Proceedings of the 23rd European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 1-4 June 2015, Vienna, Austria, pp. 1468-1474

advance results of the SWEETFUEL project on bredding and physiology of sweet sorghum for ethanol production.

The energy crop sweet sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L. Moench) is raising considerable interest as a source of either fermentable free sugars or lignocellulosic feedstock with the potential to produce fuel, food, feed and a variety of other products. Sweet sorghum is a C4 plant with many potential advantages, including high water, nitrogen and radiation use efficiency, broad agro-ecological adaptation as well as a rich genetic diversity for useful traits. For developing countries sweet sorghum provides opportunities for the simultaneous production of food and bioenergy (e.g. bio-ethanol), thereby contributing to improved food security as well as increased access to affordable and renewable energy sources. In temperate regions (e.g. in Europe) sweet sorghum is seen as promising crop for the production of raw material for 2nd generation bio-ethanol. The project SWEETFUEL (Sweet Sorghum: An alternative energy crop) is supported by the European Commission in the 7th Framework Programme to exploit the advantages of sweet sorghum as potential energy crop for bio-ethanol production. Thereby, the main objective of SWEETFUEL is to optimize yields in temperate and semi-arid regions by genetic enhancement and the improvement of cultural and harvest practices., Proceedings of the 18th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 3-7 May 2010, Lyon, France, pp. 200-206

Many biogas plants aim to maximise the electrical output from biogas in combined heat and power (CHP) units, due to supportive policies that mainly focus on electricity production (feed­in tariffs). As a result, in many cases the heat from CHP units is only partly used, or wasted. This inefficiency in energy use is a bottleneck in current biogas production, causing macroeconomic and microeconomic losses and challenges in the context of overall increasing land use competition. This has a negative impact on the public perception on biogas. In the framework of the BiogasHeat project 10 feasibility studies for existing biogas plants in southern Germany were elaborated. Heat data were collected from the biogas plants and interviews were made. This paper gives an overview on the use of waste heat from biogas plants in Europe and Germany. It presents and compares the outcome of the studies in Germany., Proceedings of the 22nd European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 23-26 June 2014, Hamburg, Germany, pp. 786-792