Contributions of flexible power generation from biomass to a secure and cost-effective electricity supply—a review of potentials, incentives and obstacles in Germany

Table 2 Overview of technical flexibilisation opportunities for different bioelectricity technologies (based on [11, 19, 36, 37, 49])

Bioelectricity technology	Power variation range “eOut” (%)	Timescale for power variation “ramp up”	Timescale for power variation “ramp down”	Technical potential for flexible bioelectricity supply¹ (TWh_el)
Biogas plants	0–100	≤ 5 min (0% to nominal load)	≤ 5 min (nominal load to 0%)	40
Solid biomass CHP	0–100	0.3% point per min for 30–100%	1% point per min for 30–100%	10
Solid biomass gasification plants	0–100	1% point per min for 50–100%	10% points per min for 50–100%	10

¹For estimating the technical potential for future flexibility provision from solid biomass plants, their current CHP electricity production level of 18 TWh_el provides an upper limit [36]; taking flexibility restrictions and a likely future reduction in production into account, the technical potential may amount to ca. 10 TWh_el

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