The Impacts of the Energy Potential of Forest Biomass on the Local Market: An Example of South-Eastern Poland

Tomasz Dudek
Additional contact information
Tomasz Dudek: Department of Agroecology, University of Rzeszów, Ćwiklińskiej 1a, 35-601 Rzeszów, Poland

Energies, 2020, vol. 13, issue 18, 1-11

Abstract: Forest biomass is and will remain a primary source of renewable energy in many EU countries in the coming years. The aim of this study was to determine the energy potential of forest biomass on a regional scale with regard to the needs of its inhabitants in terms of electricity and heat consumption. The study was carried out in south-eastern Poland. Energy potential was calculated based on the determined wood mass and calorific value of wood. The current level of forest biomass acquisition satisfies 4.2% of the needs of the local market in terms of electricity and heat consumption. Taking into account high forest cover of the region (40%), the 60% annual increment of total harvesting, and obtaining biomass at the level of 30% of the total harvesting, waste wood from the forest can meet 58.1% of the needs of the local market in terms of electricity consumption and 14.4% of the need for thermal energy consumption. There is a certain niche in the fuel wood market that is currently unused, presenting the opportunity to develop this sector and generate additional jobs in local markets. However, the increase in obtained forest biomass must be in accordance with the principles of sustainable development.

Keywords: renewable energy sources; woody biomass; fuelwood; slash for fuel; harvesting residues (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/18/4985/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/18/4985/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:13:y:2020:i:18:p:4985-:d:417550

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().