Publications Sustainability of biomass electricity systems, an assessments of costs, macro-economics and environmental impacts in Nicaragua, Ireland and the Netherlands

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Publications : Electricity : Liquid Biofuels and Biogas : National Activities - Ireland : National Activities - Netherlands : Solid Biofuels

Richard van den Broek, Eburon, 2000, ISBN: 90-5166-800-7, 224 pages.

In many countries, biomass is considered as one of the most important renewable energy resources for the coming decades. Electricity is one of the many energy carriers that can be produced using biomass. This book poses a series of questions as follows:

• Is the use of biomass for electricity generation more environmental friendly than the use of fossil fuels?
• Is biomass electricity able to compete in the market?
• What are the consequences for the national economy?

This study, carried out within the Department of Science, Technology and Society of the Utrecht University, attempts to answer these questions, in the context of both an industrialised and a developing country context. This report, part of which was commissioned by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, provides useful tools and examples for policy makers, researchers and investors in the field of renewable energy projects

Richard introduces the subject as follows:

Sustainable development and biomass energy

Sustainable development has been defined by the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) as "a development that ensures the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs". In 1992, at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro, over 150 countries committed themselves to act towards sustainable development and the protection of the environment as formulated in "Agenda 21" and the "Rio Declaration" Sustainable development is generally seen as a multidimensional concept, of which the economic, social and environmental dimension are most often discussed.

Regarding the economic dimension, at the level of individuals, objectives of sustainable development are to achieve personal welfare by efficient allocation of scarce resources, to meet (at least) basic human needs, and to eliminate poverty. At the company level - an objective is to obtain and maintain a competitive market position. At the national and international level a main aim is to obtain and maintain a healthy economy. The social dimension of sustainable development is focused at the (mental) well being of people, and has equity in development opportunities as one of the central objectives. This includes an equitable distribution of income, participation at various levels in society (e.g. gender equality) and safety at a local and an international level. Finally, a key objective regarding the environmental dimension of sustainable development is to obtain and to maintain a healthy condition for humans, animals and plants. Protecting biodiversity and avoiding unacceptable environmental risks play an important role in this respect.

It was stated as one of the conclusions of the Rio conference that, "while energy problems could hamper attainment of key development objectives, if handled wisely, solutions to energy problems could contribute to meeting these objectives". Biomass energy, with its many different faces, confirms this dual picture. A part of the traditional use of biomass, mainly for cooking and heating in developing countries, is not sustainable. One of the reasons for this is that, according to several authorities, it may contribute to desdesertificationertification and other forms of land degradation. Unsustainable harvesting of biomass may also contribute to a decline of the worldwide carbon buffer in forests and thus affect climate change.

One of the major problems of traditional bioenergy use for cooking is the negative impact on indoor air quality, This is mainly caused by inefficient and incomplete combustion combined with a lack of adequate flue gas removal from the house. Finally, collecting firewood for own fuel consumption demands huge time investments mainly to women in developing countries, thereby limiting their ability to find paid employment elsewhere. However, modem use of biomass, i.e. to produce electricity, steam and biofuels, has the potential to give a positive contribution to sustainable development. It is a source of CO₂ - neutral energy, which can reduce CO, emissions to the atmosphere when it replaces fossil energy carriers. Moreover, sustainable cultivation of energy crops has the potential to improve degraded land, e.g. by adding additional carbon to the soil and reducing the risk of erosion.

Regarding emissions, it is possible, to convert biomass into other energy carriers with little contaminating emissions, when there is good control of the combustion process. This has been demonstrated worldwide in many low emission power plants using biomass as their sole fuel.

Another important contribution to sustainable development is the potential of energy plantations to create new employment opportunities in rural areas in developing countries Utilisation of renewable energy based on local employment intensive resources, particularly in the rural areas, has explicitly been promoted in the World Summit for Social Development held in Copenhagen in 1995. Whereas renewable energy sources like wind and solar energy are relatively capital intensive, labour requirement of biomass energy is generally relatively high, especially regarding the cultivation of energy crops. Strongly related to this is the import substitution effect that local biomass energy production may have in developing countries. Since the two oil crises, many countries have indebted themselves as a result of high costs for oil imports. Nowadays, many developing countries are still spending significant portions of their convertible currency earnings on energy imports, using scarce foreign currency that is needed to meet other development objectives, as well as being are a heavy burden on the national balance of payment, often leading to debt problems.

These issues and others are discussed further in around 220 pages, with the following contents:

1. General introduction

1.1. Sustainable development and biomass energy

1.2. Present use and potential future role of biomass energy

1.3. Biomass energy: from resource to final energy carrier

1.3.1. Biomass resources

1.3.2. Logistics of biomass energy systems

1.3.3. Biomass conversion to final energy carriers

1.4. Potential problems in assessing biomass energy systems

1.5. Central research question of the thesis

1.6. Outline and specific objectives of the thesis

References

2. The energy crop growth model SILVA: Description and application to eucalyptus plantations in Nicaragua

2.1. Introduction

2.2. Description of the SILVA crop growth model

2.2.1. Potential growth rate

2.2.2. Water-limited growth rate

2.2.3. Actual growth rate

2.3. Case description and input data used

2.3.1. Description of the case: eucalyptus plantations in Nicaragua

2.3.2. Input data used in the model calculation

2.4. Results

2.5. Sensitivity analysis

2.6. Discussion

2.6.1. Discussion on the model

2.6.2. Discussion on the data

2.7. Conclusions

References

3. Electricity generation from eucalyptus and bagasse by sugar mills in Nicaragua: A comparison with fuel oil electricity generation on the basis of costs, macro-economic impacts and environmental emissions

3.1. Introduction

3.2. Description of biomass and the fuel oil energy chains to be compared

3.3. Methodology

3.3.1. Methodology for cost assessment

3.3.2. Macro-economic impacts

3.3.3. Analysis of environmental emissions

3.4. Input data

3.5. Results

3.5.1. Results on cost calculation

3.5.2. Results of assessing the macro-economic impacts

3.5.3. Results of assessing the environmental emissions

3.6. Sensitivity analysis

3.6.1. Sensitivity of the cost results

3.6.2. Sensitivity of the macro-economic results

3.6.3. Sensitivity of the environmental results

3.7. Discussion

3.8. Conclusions

References

Appendix 3.1. Method for assessing macro-economic impacts of energy systems.

A.3.1.1. The impact of an individual project (or product) on the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and employment

A.3.1.2. The standard input-output table

A.3.1.3. The standard input-output method

A.3.1.4. Application of the standard 10 method to new products

A.3.1.5. Problem: level of aggregation in standard input-output tables

A.3.1.6. Modified input-output method: the use of an extended IO table

4. Potential local environmental impacts of eucalyptus in Nicaragua

4.1. Introduction

4.2. Eucalyptus plantations in Nicaragua

4.2.1. Technical description of the plantations under consideration

4.2.2. Summary of previously identified environmental impacts

4.3. Approach used in the assessment of the local environmental impacts

4.3.1. The various impacts included

4.3.2. Selection of the reference land use

4.4. Potential local environmental impacts of eucalyptus cultivation

4.4.1. Erosion

4.4.2. Loss of soil quality

4.4.3. Groundwater eutrophication

4.4.4. Emission of toxic substances

4.4.5. Groundwater depletion

4.4.6. Loss of biodiversity

4.4.7. Overview of the assessment

4.5. Conclusions

References

5. Farm-based versus industrial eucalyptus plantations for electricity generation in Nicaragua

5.1. Introduction

5.2. Case description

5.3. Methodology

5.3.1. Method for financial assessment

5.3.2. Method for the macro-economic assessment

5.4. Input data

5.5. Results

5.5.1. Results of the financial assessment

5.5.2. Results of the assessment of macro- economic impacts

5.6. Discussion

5.7. Conclusions

References

6. Green Energy or EKO Food: A comparative LCA study, based on the use of equal land area, of two ways of utilising set-aside land

6.1. Introduction

6.2. System description

6.3. Method

6.3.1. Definition of goal and scope

6.3.2. Inventory

6.3.3. Impact assessment

6.3.4. Interpretation

6.4. Input data

6.4.1. General input data

6.4.2. System specific input data

6.5. Results

6.5.1. Inventory

6.5.2. Impact assessment

6.5.3. Interpretation

6.6. Sensitivity analysis

6.7. Discussion

6.7.1. Discussion on the methodology used

6.7.2. Discussion on the system definition

6.7.3. Discussion on input data

6.8. Conclusion

References

7. Potentials for electricity production from biomass in Ireland

7.1. Introduction

7.2. Method

7.3. Potential biomass resources for electricity production in Ireland

7.3.1. Dedicated energy crops

7.3.2. Forest residues

7.3.3. Sawmill residues

7.4. Potential conversion technologies for biomass- based electricity production in Ireland

7.5. Promising bio-electricity routes

7.6. Reduction of greenhouse gas emissions

7.7. Discussion

7.8. Conclusion

References

8. Electricity from energy crops in different settings: A country comparison between Nicaragua, Ireland and the Netherlands

8.1. Introduction

8.2. Three different country profiles

8.2.1. Basic relevant characteristics of Nicaragua, Ireland and the Netherlands

8.2.2. Reference systems

8.2.3. Relevant policies

8.3. The cost of electricity from biomass

8.3.1. The cost of producing energy crops

8.3.2. Overall cost of electricity production as compared with local alternatives

8.4. Environmental impacts of electricity from energy crops

8.4.1. Climate change

8.4.2. Non renewable energy carrier depletion

8.4.3. Acidification

8.4.4. Eutrophication

8.4.5. Human and eco-toxicity

8.4.6. Dessication

8.5. Macro economic impacts of biomass energy production

8.6. International trade in biomass and emission reduction credits

8.7. Discussion

8.8. Conclusions

References

9. Summary and conclusions

Samenvatting en conclusies

Resumen y conclusiones

Acknowledgement

Curriculum vitae

Contacts

For copies

• Freek VAN DER STEEN / Eburon Publishers NETHERLANDS