As postulated in Carlyle’s New Joule Order and detailed in my first article in this series, a new paradigm has emerged related to energy and climate change. Nations are now prioritizing energy security and the need for 24/7 reliable electricity, foremost, especially due to the surge in electricity demand caused by AI, data centers, and bitcoin mining. At the local level, whether the need for power is within the United States, other developed countries, or emerging markets, however, it’s every user for itself.

For local municipalities and local companies who require a lot of reliable electricity, local biomass-to-electricity projects could be an excellent option. It, however, will be important for electricity users to adopt a new way of thinking about biomass:

- Biomass is a plentiful local source of reliable electricity, available in every local area. It’s an untapped source of electricity wasting away every time biomass-related waste streams, such as MSW, plastics, papers, cardboard, and wood, are transported to landfills.

- Biomass-to-Electricity projects can be smaller, decentralized projects that are economically feasible due to use of microgrids, battery storage, and better waste sorting technologies. Buyers are no longer reliant on large-scale, large city deployments (costing tens of millions or hundreds of millions) that only can send electricity to the grid.

- New biomass electricity can be “more quickly” added to the grid, or consumed by off-grid producers, than other energy options being built from scratch. Just like electricity from solar, the funding, building and generation of electricity of a biomass waste-to-energy system could take less than 12 month - not multiple years or a decade later for nuclear power, LNG, or new fossil fuel plants.

- Electricity from biomass enhances grid resiliency as base load energy. Electricity from a number of smaller projects do add up! This electricity is produced 24/7, unlike from intermittent sources such as wind or the sun, and is a viable long-term source of reliable electricity for local utility baseload planning purposes.

In fact, every kilowatt created by a waste producer that is reused by the waste producer for its internal electricity needs or sent to the local grid, is one less kilowatt the local grid has to supply to its customers, especially at peak demand.

- Biomass-to-Electricity projects will positively impact local environmental conditions, and improve a local population’s overall health. In developing countries, in particular, these projects are more than just joules. Where waste is collected, streets will be cleaner, and less dumping or open burning of waste will lead to better quality air and less polluted drinking water. Plus, every ton of waste not sent to landfill lowers the ultimate creation of methane, which is 27 times worse than C02.