TVA GIS-based biomass resource assessment

Conference · Fri Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1993

OSTI ID:140276

Noon, C E ^[1]

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1. Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States)

The focus of this paper is a computer-based system for estimating the costs of supplying wood fuel. The system is being developed for the Tennessee Valley Authority and is referred to as the Biomass Resource Assessment Version One (BRAVO) system. The main objective in developing the BRAVO system is to assist TVA in estimating the costs for supplying wood fuel to any one of its twelve coal-fired plants. The BRAVO system is developed within a Geographic Information System (GIS) platform and is designed to allow a user to perform {open_quotes}what if{close_quotes} analyses related to the costs of wood fuel supply. Three types of wood fuel are considered in the BRAVO system: mill residues, logging residues and short-rotation woody crops (SRWC). Each type of wood fuel has unique economic and supply characteristics. The input data for the system includes the specific locations, amount, and prices of the various types of wood fuel throughout the TVA region. The system input is completed by data on political boundaries, power plant locations, road networks and a model for estimating transportation costs as a function of distance. The result is a comprehensive system which includes information on all possible wood fuel supply joints, demand points and product movement costs. In addition, the BRAVO system has been designed to allow a user to perform sensitivity analysis on a variety of supply system parameters. This will enable TVA to thoroughly investigate the financial impacts of issues such as increased competition for wood fuel, environmental policies, fuel taxes, and regional economic cycles.

• Research Organization: National Renewable Energy Lab., Golden, CO (United States)
• OSTI ID: 140276
• Report Number(s): NREL/CP--200-5768-Vol.1; CONF-9308106--Vol.1; ON: DE93010050
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

09 BIOMASS FUELS
BIOMASS
COMPETITION
COST
CROPS
FORESTRY
FORESTS
FUEL SUPPLIES
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
PAPER
RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES
RENEWABLE RESOURCES
RESIDUES
RESOURCE ASSESSMENT
ROTATION
SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS
SHORT ROTATION CULTIVATION
TAXES
TENNESSEE VALLEY AUTHORITY
THERMAL POWER PLANTS
WOOD FUELS
WOOD WASTES
WOOD-FUEL POWER PLANTS