By Laura Raus, ICIS.

As Germany prepares to revise its renewable energy law again, experts say the country should review the role of biomass – a carbon-neutral way of balancing fluctuating wind and solar electricity generation.

Germany’s previous renewable energy law change, which came into force last year, hit the biomass sector with lower subsidies and a 100MW annual expansion cap (see EDEM 6 November 2014).

This has brought biomass development close to a halt. The country’s installed capacity stood at 8.8GW in August, almost unchanged from late 2014, according to the Fraunhofer research institute. Last year, installed biomass capacity increased by 5%, compared with 10% in 2013.