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Analysis of the economic aspects of the use of wood as an energy source
Project
Project code: TI-FO-08-PID1125
Contract period: 01.01.2000
- 31.03.2013
Purpose of research: Applied research
Driven by the Renewable Energies Act as well as increasing prizes for fossil fuels fuelwood consumption did increase considerably in the last decade in Germany . By now, competition for wood between forest industries and fuelwood users is severe. Which option is more economical? What is the value added of fuelwood consumption in Germany? Due to the severe competition for wood prizes increased considerably. Forest industries, especially wood panel industry, faced supply shortfall and economic problems. To solve their problems forest industries claimed a cascading use of wood because from an economic point of view, the higher added value of producing forest products compared to burning wood directly after harvesting is more favourable. This seems to be resonable. However, until now there was no information publicly available about the gross value added of fuelwood consumption in Germany. This study fills the gap. At present statistics of fuelwood consumption are unsufficiently detailed. This is unsatisfactory because that is why an analysis of the wood energy sector is yet impossible. Hence, we analyse selected fuelwood supply chains covering all steps from foerst production to combustion. For each of the supply chains we calculate the added value related to one cubicmeter of raw wood used. This is an unusual approach but intentionally chosen since forest industries as well as politics argues with the value added made per cubicmeter in order to illustrate the excellence of material use of wood. To ensure a high degree of representativeness we cover the most important fuelwood products and the respective combustion technologies. We do this for the year 2005. However, if necessary, we use data from other years.
Section overview
Subjects
- Forestry
- Agroeconomics
- Renewable Resources
