Modelling of the Potential for Energy Crop Utilisation in Northern Sweden

• Main Author: Sylvia Larsson
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Northern Sweden
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.630.3316; http://pub.epsilon.slu.se/1067/1/Epsilon.pdf

Within this thesis, a methodology for estimation of the potential supply of biomass feedstock from the energy crop reed canary grass (Phalaris arundinacea L.) is summarized and discussed. In the studied area, Västerbotten County in northern Sweden, agriculture is dominated by dairy and beef production, abandoned farmland constitutes 23 % of the total arable land area, and EU subsidies have a strong influence on the profitability of different agricultural branches. A partial equilibrium model with a break-even price approach was used to create supply curves for reed canary grass under the assumption that reed canary grass would be produced if the net return equalled or exceeded the current land use. Supply curves were created for three different scenarios; current EU subsidy scheme, proposed subsidy scheme of 2004, and without EU subsidies. To quantify the restoration costs for making abandoned farmland available for energy crop cultivation, an orthophoto interpretation method was developed, and the real restoration costs for a sample of fields was determined by a fieldwork inventory. From orthophoto interpretation abandoned fields could be divided into two different classes with