Supply Chains

 

They concluded that using forest energy from the north west highlands of Scotland could be feasible and cost effective. They found that the biggest difficulty is transport due to the road infrastructure in the north of Scotland.

 

Their study highlights that the price of biomass fuel is sensitive to many factors and to compete with more conventional fuels needs to be kept low.

 

Transport Emissions

 

 

If transporting biomass from the west cost of Scotland to Glasgow, the portion of life cycle transport emissions from transport are 9 kg CO2.e/MWh. From the North West cost of Scotland the emissions are 26kg CO2.e/MWh, both of these distances are using lorries.

 

The life cycle emissions from transport alone by road, rail and sea,  from North America are 30-34kg CO2.e/MWh. If these values are compared to the transport emissions within Scotland it highlights the importance of controlling the supply chain carefully.

 

CO2 Emissions from Transport (kg CO2e/MWh)

Land Under Wind Turbines

 

 

From approximately 16 major Scottish wind farms investigated, only around 50km2 of suitable land was available.

 

An excel document with more information is available to download here.

Hadyards Wind farm: Scottish Power

It should be noted that technical issues may arise in the turbines from tall forestry or crops under the blades but this was not part of the investigation.