Heat supply from woody biomass - an economic analysis

Due to ecological advantages, wood is a promising source of energy to cover a part of the given heat demand. Against this background, the aim of this paper is to give a detailed analysis of the heat provision costs of woody b iomass. For different case studies it is shown which part of the heat provi sion chain dominates the overall costs and within which range the costs can vary. As the heat provision from wood is only one possibility to cover a g iven energy demand, these costs are compared to costs for the use of other renewable energy sources and for fossil energy carriers. The use of renewab le energies is often promoted by various governmental measures. Therefore, the influence of such governmental incentives that could he applied to prom ote woody biofuels are discussed and their impact on the heat provision cos ts are analysed. Based on this, recommendations are given concerning measur es to he applied to make wood an energy source that is competitive with fos sil fuels. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.