Abstract

Competition for woody biomass between material and energy uses is expected to further increase in the future, due to the limited availability of forest resources and increasing demand of wood for material and bioenergy. Currently, methodological approaches for modeling wood production and delivery costs from forest to industrial gates are missing. This study combines forest engineering, geographically explicit information, environmental constraints and economics in a bottom-up approach to assess cost-supply curves. The estimates are based on a multitude of wood supply systems that were assigned according to geographically explicit forestry characteristics. For each harvesting and transportation system, efficiencies were modeled according to harvesting sites and main delivery hubs. The cost-supply curves for roundwood and logging residues as estimates for current time and for the future (2030) show that there are large regional differences in the potential to increase extraction in the EU28. In most EU Member States, the costs of logging residues extraction increase exponentially already for low levels of mobilization, while extraction of roundwood can be increased to a larger extent within reasonable costs (30-40 $/m(3)). The large differences between countries in their harvest potential highlight the importance of spatially explicit analyses.

Keywords

Spatial availability; cost-supply curves; woody biomass; supply systems

Published in

Scandinavian Journal of Forest Research
2016, Volume: 31, number: 7, pages: 691-707

SLU Authors

• Di Fulvio, Fulvio

  • Department of Forest Biomaterials and Technology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    
  • International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA)

• Lindroos, Ola

  • Department of Forest Biomaterials and Technology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

Associated SLU-program

SLU Future Forests


Sustainable Development Goals

SDG7 Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all


UKÄ Subject classification

Forest Science


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02827581.2016.1221128

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/78112