Estimating greenhouse gas emissions reduction and allowances’ trading revenue for biomass tri-generation applications

Biomass tri-generation constitutes an innovative renewable energy application. An approved UNFCCC baseline methodology has been extended in this paper to examine a biomass tri-generation application. Some environmental and financial aspects of this type of applications were investigated through a case study. It has been shown that tri-generation may result in significant emissions reduction, compared to using conventional energy sources or even biomass co-generation. The emissions reduction achieved may be materialized into a considerable revenue stream for the project, if traded through EU ETS. However, the high volatility of the tCO2e value and the EU Trading Scheme being still in its infancy prevent a reliable estimation of the related revenue. For this reason, a sensitivity analysis has been performed. The work concludes that greenhouse gas emissions trading may develop into one of the major revenue streams of biomass tri-generation projects, significantly increasing their financial yield and attractiveness