According to the recently released Eurobarometer, in 2017 the European solid biomass sector came close to 100 Mtep (Million tons of oil equivalent) of primary energy, deriving from wood, wood chips, pellets, black liquor from the paper industry and lignocellulosic agricultural waste. The "Top five "of the European ranking are: Germany (12.4 Mtep), France (10.8 Mtep), Sweden (9.3 Mtep), Italy (9 Mtep) and Finland (8.6 Mtoe). All self-sufficient in the production of biomass, except Italy and Germany, which import 1.3 and 0.4 Mtep respectively.

The most virtuous countries in the use of solid biomass for the generation of electricity, or those where only cogeneration is used, are: Sweden, Poland, Denmark, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovenia, Croatia and Luxembourg. UK is instead the first producer of electricity from biomass, but 100% of its production takes place by wasting heat, for the simple reason that biomass is used to replace coal in old power plants, which was preferred to convert rather than dismantle.