Role of Biomass in Norway's Energy Future

In the United States a major new initiative in biomass energy research is the project "Role of Biomass in America's Energy Future". Ten research institutes and three sponsoring organisations contribute to "identify and evaluate paths by which biomass can make large contributions to future demands for energy services, especially transportation" and "determine what can be done to accelerate biomass energy use and in what timeframe associated benefits can be realized". In Norway there are also initiatives t o promote biomass energy, but they are inevitably small compared with the U.S. effort. In order to increase the effectiveness of limited Norwegian biomass research funding we believe it is extremely important that Norwegian competence taps into the vast U .S. research efforts. With this in mind, Princeton University and ECON Analysis suggest a project to analyse the Role of Biomass in Norway's Energy Future (RBNEF). This seed money proposal will cover two activities: - A concept paper to discuss the ingre dients and research topics of a RBNEF project. The paper will lay the foundation for a future research proposal by the Princeton and ECON with other institutions to be invited in. - A workshop to bring together interested researchers and institutions on t he topic "the project Role of Biomass in America's Energy Future - relevance for Norway". The workshop will discuss the U.S. project, present Norwegian research and discuss a draft version of the concept paper. The workshop will crystallise interested par ties and relevant topics for a subsequent proposal related to RBNEF. Princeton University is a key member of the project on America's Energy Future and an actor in engineering science and natural science biomass research. ECON Analysis does extensive rese arch in economic aspects of energy. The two partners have recently cooperated on a study of a biomass gasification technology for power production, and are eager to pursue institutional cooperation.