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It almost sounds as if you are not comfortabe with the term biomass/biomass energy. The “bio” portion of the word comes from biology. The “mass” portion refers to any object with mass or dimention. More often than not, biomass energy is used in conjunction with energy derived from living or dead vegetation from small plants to huge trees. In times past, fecal methane energy (poop power, or what causes the powerful smell of fecal matter) was certainly considered and discussed when biomass energy was mentioned; I’ve listed a couple of Wikipedia pages that better explain just what biomass energy is and is not. Also, a site that is sort of a clearing house and reporting group of biomass projects about the US. You will find additional links on each page/site. (By the way, entering fecal methane energy into the search engine gives a couple of good references too.)

If you’re speaking of chopping down trees and burning them in a fireplace, folks have been doing that for hundreds of years. It is often not considered the best “green” solution to household heating. For as many folks that have chopped or sawed down 60′-200′ trees for firewood through the history of all mankind, far more have gleaned an assortment of biomass materials for heating and cooking purposes. Dried animal dung/scat/poop has been gathered and burned on almost every continent of the world; it is still a routine practice in many areas of the world. Just as many people have gathered and burned fallen branches, dead trees, shrubs, and grasses for the purpose of cooking and heating. All of these fit the biomass energy definition.

Most of the gleaned items we’ve burned as fuel over the time of mankind have been waste or discarded products from some other element of our environment and ecosystem. I will guess that you are not living a nomadic life across the grass plains of the US where buffalo chips are littered across the ground. Rather, your environment and ecosystem is a some combination of “modern industrial society” and agrarian based food products. There is hardly a town in the industrial world that doesn’t have some type of a deep-fat frier. And, where there is a deep fat frier, there is a frier grease disposal need. Did you know that biodiesel can be made from this otherwise waste product? (Check out the fourth link below.) In fact, it is possible for individuals to convert their own vehicle diesel engines and manufacture their own biodiesel in the garage from frier fat?

Just what other biomass based products are readily available in your community, I don’t know. But, it seems as if most of the biomass energy being generated and used in the US today begins with some type of biomass that is the waste stream or by-product of another process, manufacturing plant, or agricultural production. The advantage of this type of biomass energy production is that it more completely or fully uses the materials and by-products of an existing process rather than discarding them unused.

Now, if you include fecal methane energy…where ever there are people or animals gathered, there is opportunity. Again, what the use of fecal methane energy does is more completely and fully use the waste or by-products of other processes. – In this case, it would be good to conjure up the concept of more completely and fully using the elsewise, underutilized, by-product energy of the process of fueling human or animal life.

One of the issues clouding the definition and the use of the term biodiesel is whether to include only plant, vegetation, and vegeartian masses. Or, does one also include things that are in whole or part ominivore or carnivore based?

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Renewable energy is energy generated from natural resources—such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, and geothermal heat—which are renewable (naturally replenished)Renewable energy is derived from natural processes that are replenished constantly. In its various forms, it derives directly from the sun, or from heat generated deep within the earth. Included in the definition is electricity and heat generated from solar, wind, ocean, hydropower, biomass, geothermal resources, and biofuels and hydrogen derived from renewable resources.

Each of these sources has unique characteristics which influence how and where they are used.

Sustainable energy sources are most often regarded as including all renewable sources, such as biofuels, solar power, wind power, wave power, geothermal power and tidal power. It usually also includes technologies that improve energy efficiency

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[PDF] Renewable Energy & Energy Efficiency Certificate Trading: the …File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat – View as HTML
1 Apr 2009 … The National Electricity Market works well. – The Tradeable Renewable Energy Certificate Scheme has worked well for low-cost RE: wind, …
Www.ceem.unsw.edu.au/content/userDocs/090331EEcertREC_Trading_Aust_Experience_APEC.pdf – Similar pages –

Energy use by sector – Sustainability VictoriaInformation about energy use by sector in Victoria.
Www.sustainability.vic.gov.au/www/html/1820-energy-use-by-sector-.asp – Cached – Similar pages –

Energy use in Victoria – Sustainability Victoria7 Nov 2008 … A key challenge for Victoria is the significant growth in the demand for energy. Our energy consumption has doubled since 1973. …
Www.sustainability.vic.gov.au/www/html/1819-energy-use-in-victoria.asp – Cached – Similar pages –

[PDF] Modeling Renewable Energy Certificate PricesFile Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat – View as HTML
23 Apr 2007 … The Victorian Mandatory Renewable Energy Target (VRET) …. Works reasonably well in terms of project selection (picks the right sort of …
Www.amsi.org.au/images/electricity/pdfs/Wallace.pdf – Similar pages –
by S Wallace – 2007 – Cited by 1 – Related articles

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Ten Tips to Go Green

1) Turn down the thermostat. Lowering it by just one degree can reduce heating energy costs by about four percent.

2) Use ceiling fans in the summer AND winter. By reversing the direction of the blades, warm air is pushed down, helping to keep rooms warm in winter.

3) Conserve energy by purchasing major appliances with an Energy Star rating. Compared to a 1990 model, an Energy Star-qualified refrigerator would save enough electricity to light a home for more than four and a half months.

4) Repair leaky fixtures: one drop per second from a leaky faucet can waste as mush as 10 gallons of water each week.

5) Install low-flow showerheads, faucets, and toilets. Low-flow faucets reduce water consumption and the cost of heating water by as much as 50 percent; using a low-flow toilet can save Americans 2.1 trillion gallons of water and $11.3 million nationwide every day.

6) Choose carpeting, rugs, window treatments and other textiles made from natural fibers, such as cotton or wool, which are untreated and free of toxins, such as pesticides or chemical cleaners.

7) Ask for flooring products made from rapidly renewable resources, such as bamboo. Bamboo is one of the fasted growing plants in the world, requiring no replanting and little fertilization or pesticides.

8) Select solid woods harvested from sustainably-managed forests, when possible, for furniture or cabinetry, rather than pressed woods or composites that may contain formaldehyde or other chemicals that may be toxic and hazardous to your health.

9) Eliminate waste by choosing products that are biodegradable or recyclable. Consider the “lifecycle” of furnishings and accessories before purchasing: Are they made of materials that can be reused or recycled when the item eventually wears out or is no longer needed?

10) Recycle packing and shipping materials from any newly purchased items, and safely dispose of paint cans and other containers with contents that could potentially contaminate the ground or water supply