Potentials for electricity production from wood in Ireland

Greenhouse gas emissions in Ireland are expected to be 25% higher in 2010 a s compared to 1990, whereas Ireland's Kyoto commitment is a maximum rise of 13%. One of the measure taken to reduce this gap (about 7 Mtonne CO2-eq.) could be the development of biomass based electricity production. This stud y focusses on various biomass resources and a range of conversion technolog ies, in order to select promising routes for biomass based electricity in t he short term. This article extends previous analyses by: (i) including the use of forest residues and sawmill residues as potential biofuels; (ii) co nsidering both co-firing in retrofitted existing peat stations and co-firin g in the new to be built Europeat power plant; and (iii) including, other p romising conversion technologies to generate electricity from biomass. Alth ough the potential for energy crops in Ireland could be large, their cost i s relatively high, 4.7-8.2 is an element of GJ(-1), dependent on the type o f land used. Lower cost biomass can be obtained from currently unutilised f orest residues. It was estimated that about 3.4 PJ could be extracted from the forests at a cost of 2-3 is an element of GJ(-1). The present market pr ice of sawmill residues (in total about 7 PJ) is 1.4-3.5 is an element of G J(-1). Three promising routes for electricity generation were selected: co- firing with peat in the new to be built Europeat power plant, small scale C HP generation with fixed bed gasifiers, and co-firing in the Moneypoint coa l fired plant. Co-firing in the Europeat plant is the most attractive. The electricity production costs are 0.033-0.053 is an element of kW(-1) h(-1) as compared to 0.041 is an element of kW(-1) h(-1) for peat based electrici ty. Costs per avoided tonne of CO2 are between -7 and 12 is an element of. Electricity generation from wood could fill about 14% (about 1.0 Mtonne CO2 -eq.) of the Irish 'Kyoto gap'. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights r eserved.