Expanding roles for modernized biomass energy

Biomass energy can be "modernized" worldwide, i.e., produced and used much more efficiently and cost-competitively, generally in the more convenient forms of gases, liquids, or electricity. This article is a summary of a recently published book whose objective is to provide information to help expand the contributions that modernized biomass energy makes to sustainable development in developing countries. The article discusses the present and possible future magnitude of bioenergy contributions to global energy supply, efficiency gains that are possible by modernization of bioenergy, alternative sources of biomass for energy, a variety of socioeconomic and environmental issues that can arise with the production and use of bioenergy, and institutions and institutional mechanisms that would facilitate a greater role for modernized biomass energy.