Wood Pellet Market Development: Impact of Policies on Wood Pellet Market Development in Europe

Wood pellet, a modern densified biomass with strategic importance has a crucial role for the increased use of renewable energy and could make a significant contribution in reducing green house gas emissions in Europe. The wood pellet markets are booming in Europe because the importance of wood pellets in producing heat and power generation has increased over the past few decades. During the last two decades many different initiatives have been launched and policy instruments employed in different countries to develop the wood pellet sector, some of which have been successful for the development of pellet markets. This study explains the current pellet market development on the basis of policy mechanisms in the European Union (EU) and ten EU countries. The result of the study shows that different policy instruments employed at national level influenced the pellet market growth but the growth is different in different countries. The results of the study can be significantly important to the policy makers and academia to plan further research on policy development for future pellet market development.