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Where are new biopower plants being built?

  • Written by: Cutler Cleveland
  • Visualizations by: Alice Ni

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Biopower refers to the generation of electricity by the combustion of solid, liquid or gaseous fuels derived from biomass. The rapid growth in biopower plants in the 2000s was concentrated in Brazil where the expansion of ethanol production from sugarcane generates a byproduct called bagasse. The dry pulpy fibrous material that remains after crushing sugarcane is burned in thermal power plants to generate electricity. In parts of the United States, Germany, and the United Kingdom, land constraints and opposition to landfills means that refuse is often burned in waste-to-energy facilities.

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