A sustainable energy supply is vital for the growing world population. Today, and increasingly in the future, we are responsible for using the existing energy resources of our planet as efficiently and economically as possible. The utilisation of biomass as a renewable energy source will be one important element for achieving this objective.
By using biomass as an energy source, local communities in particular have the chance to support the leadership role of the European Union in creating opportunities for sustainable energy supply. However, one essential prerequisite is that they acquire well-founded know-how on site planning for sustainable biomass-to-energy production.

It is exactly in this field where the project BEn supports local communities through the development of an easily applicable tool for local energy planning. The core objective of this tool is the development of a regional energy register indicating regional energy sinks as well as biomass potentials for energy production. This data collection is designed to be transferred and displayed in a web based geographic information system (GIS). Based on the register, local communities and regional authorities develop a joint strategic master plan for sustainable bioenergy planning including guidance for management and financing biomass energy investments. The energy register will facilitate the discussion between different regional stakeholder groups in the field of energy policy.

With the BEn project local communities will be able to plan their energy supply in a sustainable way based on an efficient utilisation of locally available biomass resources.

The project BEn will be carried out in the 4 model regions North East England /UK, Emscher-Lippe Region /DE, Umbria Region /IT, and Gostynin Lake District /PL.

The BEn-Project started in November 2008 and will end in October 2011.