Type of indicator

Environment

Indicator C43

Production of renewable energy from agriculture and forestry

Definition 

This indicator measures the production of renewable energy from agriculture and forestry.

 

It is broken down in 2 sub-indicators:

  1. Production of renewable energy from agriculture 
  2. Production of renewable energy from forestry

 

Due to data availability issues, production of renewable energy from agriculture covers: 

  • Biodiesel  - liquid biofuels derived from biomass (R5220P)
  • Ethanol from starch/sugar crops
  • Energy from agricultural biogas - two of the largest sources of these biogases are the fermentation of energy crops and the fermentation of manure on farms. (Other biogases from anaerobic fermentation; R5319)

It does not cover:

  • Other renewable energy from agriculture, like heat from cereal straw etc.

 

Part of the EU biodiesel production is based on non-domestic sources (imported vegetable oils, oilseeds), therefore an ad-hoc quantification of domestic production is not possible. In addition, the category "energy from agricultural biogas", even though it predominantly covers agricultural biogas, also contains some biogas from municipal solid waste etc. 

Production of renewable energy from forestry covers:

Primary solid biofuels (R5110-5150_W6000RI): 

  • Wood pellets
  • Other fuelwood, wood residues and by-products
  • Bagasse
  • Animal waste
  • Black liquor
  • Other vegetal material and residues

Classification of energy products and their definitions can be found in the UN’s International Recommendations for Energy Statistics (especially its chapter 3: “Standard International Energy Product Classification”): 

https://unstats.un.org/unsd/energystats/methodology/documents/IRES-web.pdf

 

Production of renewable energy from agriculture:
 The total production of renewable energy from agriculture is the sum of biodiesel, bioethanol and biogas production, all expressed in ktoe (kilotons of oil equivalent). 

Primary data on biogas, expressed in Terajoule, are converted into ktoe by applying the following coefficient
 (((...TJ x 1000/41868 = ...ktoe)

Production of renewable energy from forestry: No calculation needed. Data on renewable energy from Wood & Wood Waste are directly available from Eurostat. 

Unit of measurement

1-2: kilotonnes (1000 tonnes of oil equivalent, ktoe) 

Data source

1: EurObserv'ER, Strategie Grains, Eurostat

2: Eurostat - Energy statistics

References/location of the data

 

1: DG Agriculture and Rural Development estimates based on:

  • Data on biogas: ESTAT table [nrg_cb_rw]: NRG_BAL: IPRD (indigenous production), SIEC: R5319 (Other biogases from anaerobic fermentation), UNIT: in Terajoule (conversion to TOE: [...TJ x 1000/41868 = ...ktoe]) (formerly: EurObserv'ER, Biogas Barometer (variable Other biogas: decentralised agricultural plants, municipal solid waste methanisation plants, centralised plants) available on www.eurobserv-er.org
  • Data on biodiesel: ESTAT table: [nrg_bal_c]: NRG_BAL: Primary production, SIEC: R5220P - Pure biodiesels, UNIT: TOE. (Formerly European Biodiesel Board (EBB), website
    www.ebb-eu.org/stats.php)
  • Data on bioethanol: Tallage's report Stratégie grains, website www.strategie-grains.com

2: Eurostat – Energy Statistics 

TABLE [nrg_bal_c] - PRODUCT Primary solid biofuels  (R5110-5150_W6000RI) - NRG_BAL: primary production 

Total production of renewable energy:

Eurostat – Energy Statistics

TABLE [nrg_bal_c] - PRODUCT Renewable and biofuels (RA000) - NRG_BAL primary production total

Total energy production:

Eurostat – Energy Statistics

TABLE [nrg_bal_c]- PRODUCT Total - NRG_BAL primary production 

Data collection level

National (NUTS 0).

Frequency

Annual 

Delay

2 years

Comments/caveats

No data available on bioethanol for Estonia, Spain, Croatia, Cyprus, Luxembourg, Malta, Portugal and Slovenia.