US Biomass Power Generation Market Outlook to 2030

The US Biomass Power Generation Market is sized at USD 14,820 Mn in 2024 , which is the locked base year for this report. That value reflects revenue at the point of power generation and electricity sale, across electric power, industrial, commercial, and residential scopes, while excluding downstream retail utility margin. The market also produced 46,740 GWh in 2024 , confirming that biomass remains a meaningful dispatchable renewable source even as older wood-fired assets retire and methane-capture platforms take a larger share of the investable pipeline. From an executive standpoint, the market is large enough to support platform strategies, not only project-by-project investments.

The market is projected to grow at a 5.8% CAGR during 2025-2030 , reaching USD 20,786 Mn by 2030 . This is materially faster than the estimated 2.7% CAGR during 2019-2024 . The acceleration is driven less by broad thermal biomass expansion and more by mix improvement, especially landfill gas, biogas, and projects capable of capturing post-2024 federal tax credits. Volume growth is positive but slower than value growth, which means executives should focus on margin quality, contract structure, and policy capture rather than only megawatt expansion. Forward growth is therefore selective, not indiscriminate.

Profit pools are shifting away from slower-growth co-firing and older merchant wood assets toward biogas, anaerobic digestion, landfill gas, and waste-linked generation. In the 2024 segment structure, wood and wood-derived combustion remains the largest pool at USD 5,490 Mn , but the fastest-growing segment is biogas / anaerobic digestion power at 9.8% CAGR . That combination matters: scale still sits in legacy biomass, but growth sits in methane-capture and waste-conversion platforms. For investors, the best returns are likely where power revenue can be paired with environmental credits, waste economics, or renewable gas adjacency.

The biggest constraint is not end-demand, it is project quality under feedstock, permitting, and capex pressure. Utility-scale biomass capacity fell from 13,113 MW in 2019 to 11,412 MW in 2024 , showing that old assets are exiting faster than high-confidence replacements are entering. For waste combustion specifically, EPA states a new facility typically requires at least USD 100 million , with larger projects needing much more. That creates a narrow investable window: assets need secured feedstock, visible offtake, and manageable permitting exposure. Projects missing one of those pillars face materially weaker underwriting defensibility.

The United States ranks as the largest market in the selected peer set because it combines scale in wood biomass, waste-to-energy, landfill gas, and industrial CHP rather than relying on a single pathway. Its advantage is operational diversity, not just installed megawatts. The market also benefits from deeper methane-capture infrastructure, with 542 operational landfill gas projects and over 400 livestock digesters , which few peers can match at national scale. Growth is solid rather than extreme, but the U.S. offers a broader set of investable business models than most comparison markets.

The strongest demand-side anchor is biomass’s role in industrial energy systems and firm, dispatchable renewable supply. In 2023 , the industrial sector represented 45% of all U.S. biomass energy consumption, far ahead of the electric power sector alone. That matters because industrial CHP and self-generation are driven by process reliability and thermal integration, not only grid prices. At the same time, waste-to-energy and landfill-linked plants provide firm output that complements intermittent renewables. Together, those characteristics make biomass power more resilient than a simple merchant renewable peaker business.