In the upper table biomass potentials estimated by Thomas Dreier ("Lehrstuhl für Energiewirtschaft und Anwendungstechnik, Technische Universität München") are given. The secondary biomass potential is the potential of residues and waste, while the total potential includes the possible biomass production on unused land and within western Europe also 15% of the today's farm land is considered to be usable for this purpose.

Assuming an efficiency of 30% for biomass power plants the secondary resources would be sufficient to e.g. deliver roughly one third of the annual Polish electricity consumption.

The lower table exemplary shows a calculation for cost of electricity from Biomass.

• The investment costs are quite strongly dependent on the efficiency of the power plant, on the environmental standards within each country and on the size of the plant. The given costs may fit for German conditions.
• The fuel costs strongly also vary. E.g. some residues are much cheaper than the given example others may have negative costs since they contain substances harmful to the environment (This again could strongly influence the investment costs). The given prices of 2.4 DPf/kWhth are consistent with today's firewood prices and can even be to achieved by biomass production for energetic purposes.