Economic feasibility of CHP facilities fueled by biomass from unused agriculture land: Case of Croatia

In this paper, the energy potential of biomass from growing short rotation coppice on unused agricultural land in the Republic of Croatia is used to investigate the feasibility of Combined Heat and Power (CHP) facilities fueled by such biomass. Large areas of agricultural land that remain unused for food crops, represent significant potential for growing biomass that could be used for energy.

This biomass could be used to supply power plants of up to 15MWe in accordance with heat demands of the chosen locations. The methodology for regional energy potential assessment was elaborated in previous work and is now used to investigate the conditions in which such energy facilities could be feasible.

The overall potential of biomass from short rotation coppice cultivated on unused agricultural land in the scenarios with 30% of the area is up to 10PJ/year. The added value of fruit trees pruning biomass represents an incentive for the development of fruit production on such agricultural land. Sensitivity analysis was conducted for several parameters: cost of biomass, investment costs in CHP systems and combined change in biomass and technology cost.