The European Union aims to increase bioenergy use. Co-firing biomass with coal represents an attractive near-term option for electricity generation from renewable energy sources (RES-E). This study assesses the near-term technical potential for biomass co-firing with coal in the existing coal-fired power plant infrastructure in the EU27 Member States. The total technical potential for RES-E from biomass co-firing amounts to approximately 50-90 TWh/yr, which requires a biomass supply of approximately 500-900 PJ/yr. The estimated co-firing potential in EU27 amounts to 20-35% of the estimated gap between current RES-E production and the RES-E target for 2010. However, for some member states the national co-firing potential is large enough to fill the national gap, The national biomass supply potential is considerably larger than the estimated biomass demand for co-firing for all member states. About 45% of the estimated biomass demand for co-firing comes from plants located close to the sea or near main navigable rivers and indicates the possibility for biomass import by sea transport. Thus, biomass co-firing has the potential to contribute substantially to the RES-E development in EU27. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.