Where is biomass energy found?
Today fossil fuels have largely replaced biomass as the major source of energy in industrialized countries, but biomass still remains an important energy source, supplying about 15 per cent of the worlds energy needs. Biomass is especially important as an energy source to developing countries that are not heavily industrialized or do not have abundant supplies of fossil fuels. In these countries biomass supplies about 35 per cent of energy needs. Throughout the world biomass sources are used for heating (such as wood stoves in homes and for process heat in industries) and cooking (especially in many developing countries). But larger scale use of biomass to generate electricity or to fuel vehicles is a more recent development. Since the 1970s and 1980s, when concerns arose over oil supplies and environmental quality, there has been a resurgence in interest in developed countries in generating electricity from biomass. In fact, biomass is the fuel source for 14,000 megawatts of installed
