Wood Energy (Biomass) in America | Science
A Resource Policy article by Daniel deB. Richter Jr. et al.
[T]hanks to regrowth of forests and improved technologies, advanced wood combustion (AWC) is being deployed throughout Europe, supplying heat, cooling, and power and reducing greenhouse-gas emissions. We argue that the European experience can guide successful implementation of community-based AWC in many regions of the United States. ...
Consider if North Carolina were to install one community-scale AWC project per year (at 75 hp, 0.75 MW thermal) in each of 100 counties over a 5-year construction period. Although incremental investment might be $100 million in each of the five construction years, fuel savings could grow to at least $100 to $180 million per year, and emissions of fossil CO2 could decrease by 0.75 to 1.0 million ton per year. The fuel wood required by such a program would amount to about 20% of a recent estimate of the state's energy-wood supply.
The second calculation considers wood energy in relation to total U.S. energy consumption, currently about 100 quads ... per year. Today, wood supplies the nation with about 2 quads per year, and the national sustainable energy-wood supply potentially contains about 5 quads per year.
