IRENA report looks at what is holding advanced biofuels back

In the United Arab Emirates, a new study from the International Renewable Energy Agency analyzes current barriers to investment in advanced biofuels and aims to capture the perspective of project developers aiming to nurture the market and scale up actual usage in competition with fossil fuels.

Among the findings:

• Regulatory uncertainty stands out as the most important impediment to investment in advanced biofuels.
• Transport sector decarbonisation calls for accepting several fuel alternatives simultaneously rather than resorting to a single, all-encompassing solution.
• Low subsidy levels, high financing costs and limited availability of finance are seen by many executives as barriers in the current market.
• Unless regulators devise specific promotional measures, the cellulosic ethanol segment will face uneven cost competition from first-generation ethanol producers in a declining market.
• Industry executives question the accuracy and reliability of common methods for estimating GHG emissions, land-use change and indirect land-use change.