China announces plans to boost biomass energy sector

China has pledged to further boost the high-quality development of the biomass power generation sector in 2021, as part of the government's ongoing efforts to peak carbon emissions by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060, according to a new plan released on Thursday.

The new plan, released by the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Finance and the National Energy Administration, targets practices such as adding funds for biomass power generation, clarifies rules for the allocation of subsidy funds between central and local governments and promotes technological advances in the biomass power generation sector.

Under the new document, the country plans to earmark 2.5 billion yuan ($385 million) for the subsidy of biomass power generation. More efforts will also be made to increase financial support for biomass power generation projects, boosting the application of biomass energy and encouraging localities to establish a system for collection, storage, transportation and treatment of agricultural and forestry waste as well as household waste.

China's biomass energy resources mainly include straw and other agricultural wastes, such as waste from forestry and forest product processing, animal manure, energy crops and plantations, organic effluents from industry and household waste, which can be burned directly for heat or converted to renewable gaseous and liquid fuels through chemical, thermal and biochemical processes.

Looking ahead, central funding subsidies for biomass power generation will gradually phase out annually in an orderly manner, and the funding scale for competitive allocation of biomass power generation projects is set to be increased yearly, the plan said.