GIS-based location suitability of decentralized, medium scale bioenergy developments to estimate transport CO2 emissions and costs

This paper presents a transferable and adaptable GIS-based approach to identify suitable locations of medium scale CHP bioenergy plants. Location suitability of bioenergy plants is of particular importance in planning decentralized bioenergy generation, as both biomass feedstock supplies and heat demand have to be considered in location selection when heat and electricity want to be utilized. A generic GIS model was developed to identify most suitable locations of CHP bioenergy plants based on regional supply, demand and proximity. Furthermore, the paper provides a simple approach to allocate biomass feedstock supplies to bioenergy plants and to estimate transport costs and CO2 emissions. The GIS-based approach was applied in a Scottish region (Tayside and Fife) to identify locations for 10 decentralized, medium scale bioenergy plants based on which regional biomass feedstock supplies were allocated and road transport-related CO2 emissions and costs were estimated. The paper concludes that the approach can assist in developing and implementing a long-term sustainable and integrated strategy for decentralized bioenergy generation, which includes heat utilization in addition to electricity production and which can be further developed to take account of broadly diversified conventional and renewable energy generation in a region. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.