Worldwide, the use of solid biomass is of key importance in the supply of energy. Solid biomass is still by far the most utilised form of renewable energy. Based on data from the International Energy Agency (IEA), solid biomass in 2008 represented a share of 9.1 % of the global primary energy supply or a 71.5 % share of the renewable energies total. In relative numbers this is a decline. While the amount of energy supplied from renewable energies has been growing since 1990 at an annual rate of 1.9 % – in line with the growth rate of the global primary energy supply – the energy generated from solid biomass only gained 1.3 % per annum. Although the bulk of solid biomass is produced in countries outside the OECD (86.5 %), growth rates are comparable to those of countries inside the OECD. In developing countries, mainly in Southeast Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, solid biomass is used for cooking and heating in private households. In 2008, Asia (without China) and Africa together produced almost 60 % of the world’s supply of solid biomass. In 2009, approximately 125,600 gigawatt hours (GWh) of gross electricity was generated from solid biomass worldwide. From 1990 to 2009 annual average growth in this area was 1.6 %. The USA, as the world’s largest producer of electricity from solid biomass, generated 32 % (40,000 GWh) of the electricity generated worldwide from solid biomass, followed by Germany with a share of around 10 % (12,900 GWh). In Hungary, Poland and Belgium solid biomass was the largest source used to generate energy from renewables, yet it did not figure at all as a source of electricity generation in Greece, Iceland and Luxemburg.

In the European Union (EU), due to EU-wide targets and national measures for achieving renewable energy quotas, energy production from solid biomass increased by 3.6 % to 72.8 Mtoe in 2009. Germany, France and Sweden took the top positions in primary energy production from solid biomass. From 2001 to 2009, the amount of electricity generated in the EU from solid biomass grew by 14.7 % annually, reaching approximately 62,186,000 GWh in 2009, with Germany, Sweden and Finland in leading positions. In the EU, the largest share of electricity was generated from combined heat and power. At the same time, 5,437 Mtoe of heat were produced in the EU. The largest contributions here came from Sweden, Finland and Denmark.

In a number of countries in Europe, heat generated by biomass provides up to 50 % of heating requirements. Biogenic solid fuels, especially wood pellets, have become one of the most important fuels for private and commercial use. In 2010, Europe achieved an annual pellet production of over 10 million tonnes. Current production worldwide is approximated to be between 15 and 20 million tonnes of wood pellets. In Germany alone, 1.75 million tonnes of pellets were produced in 2010, with consumption estimated at 1.2 million tonnes. Over 500,000 tonnes were exported, the bulk of which went to neighbouring countries such as the Benelux, Austria and Italy. In some EU countries (Denmark, Belgium, the Netherlands, Great Britain) the co-firing of biomass in coal-fired power stations has become increasingly important.