Quantifying the Effects of Biomass Market Conditions and Policy Incentives on Economically Feasible Sites to Establish Dedicated Energy Crops

Forests

Sandhya Nepal³  Marco A. Contreras¹  George A. Stainback¹  John M. Lhotka¹  Maarten Nieuwenhuis² 

[1] Department of Forestry, University of Kentucky, Thomas Poe Cooper Building, Lexington, KY 40546, USA; E-Mails:;Department of Geography, Room 304, Burchfiel Geography Building, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996, USA; E-Mail;Department of Geography, Room 304, Burchfiel Geography Building, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996, USA; E-Mail:

关键词: woody biomass utilization;    spatially-explicit model;    sensitivity analysis;    Kentucky;   

DOI  :  10.3390/f6114168

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

This study used a spatially-explicit model to identify the amount and spatial distribution of economically feasible sites for establishing dedicated energy crops under various market and policy scenarios. A sensitivity analysis was performed for a biomass market with different discount rates and biomass prices as well as policy scenarios including propriety tax exemption, carbon offset payments, and the inclusion of farmland for biomass production. The model was applied to a four-county study area in Kentucky representing conditions commonly found in the Ohio River Valley. Results showed that both biomass price and discount rate have a can strongly influence the amount of economically efficient sites. Rising the biomass price by 5 $·t⁻¹ and lowering discount rate by 1% from the baseline scenario (40 $·t⁻¹ and 5%) resulted in an over fourteen fold increment. Property tax exemption resulted in a fourfold increase, a carbon payment on only 1 $·t⁻¹ caused a twelve fold increase and extending the landbase from marginal land to farmland only slightly increase the economically efficient sites. These results provide an objective evaluation of market and policy scenarios in terms of their potential to increase land availability for establishing dedicated energy crops and to promote the bioenergy industry.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.