Large-scale economic integration of electricity from short-rotation woody crops

This paper presents an assessment of the installation of a large-scale biom ass scheme for production of electricity for distribution via the national grid in Spain. The biomass scheme studied is based on woody biomass (eucaly ptus, acacia and poplar) as short rotation crops in arable lands. The site selection process has been carried out with a Geographical Information Syst em (GIS). The criteria applied in the selection, cultivation and location o f the plantation as well as the biomass power plants have taken into accoun t environmental aspects and the economic costs, always pursuing the lowest energy cost and environmental impacts. The size of each power plant has bee n calculated taking into account the annual productivity of biomass and the available surface of arable non-irrigated land. The costs of energy crop p roduction in each area have been calculated as well as the storage and tran sport costs to supply the power plants. The technologies considered for gen erating electricity are fluidized bed combustion (FBC) and biomass gasifica tion integrated into a combined cycle (BIGCC). The costs of electricity, co nsidering also the connection costs to the electricity grid, have been calc ulated for all power plants. Cost figures along the fuel cycle have been ob tained and a sensitivity analysis of the most relevant variables has been m ade. The main conclusion of the analysis is that from an economic and envir onmental point of view, the scheme proposed is feasible. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.