Biomass organic matter is used to provide solid, gaseous and liquid fuels for the production of electricity, heat and fuels for transportation purposes. These three energy markets have been developed in different ways in recent years. While the production of transportation fuels (mainly bioethanol and biodiesel) are more or less constant, heat provision and electricity generation have significantly increased.

The heat market is widely characterized by an often informal fuel market, especially in less developed countries; thus the available data about the respective biomass use is very fragmented, even in industrialized countries. This is, to a lesser extent, true for the electricity market. Nevertheless, the available data base is weak and some of the figures outlined herein are rough estimations. But all estimates show that in recent years electricity generation from biomass has grown significantly.