Technological Alternatives or Use of Wood Fuel in Combined Heat and Power Production
2013
Jekaterina Rusanova, Gatis Bažbauers, Kārlis Valters, Darja Markova

Latvia aims for 40% share of renewable energy in the total final energy use. Latvia has large resources of biomass and developed district heating systems. Therefore, use of biomass for heat and power production is an economically attractive path for increase of the share of renewable energy. The optimum technological solution for use of biomass and required fuel resources have to be identified for energy planning and policy purposes. The aim of this study was to compare several wood fuel based energy conversion technologies from the technical and economical point of view. Three biomass conversion technologies for combined heat and electricity production (CHP) were analyzed: • CHP with steam turbine technology; • gasification CHP using gas engine; • bio-methane combined cycle CHP. Electricity prices for each alternative are presented. The results show the level of support needed for the analyzed renewable energy technologies and time period needed to reach price parity with the natural gas – fired combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) CHPss. The results also show that bio-methane technology is most competitive when compared with CCGT among the considered technologies regarding fuel consumption and electricity production, but it is necessary to reduce investment costs to reach the electricity price parity with the natural gas CCGT.


Keywords
Biomass, bio-methane, combined heat and power, renewable energy, techno-economic analysis
DOI
10.2478/rtuect-2013-0010

Rusanova, J., Bažbauers, G., Valters, K., Markova, D. Technological Alternatives or Use of Wood Fuel in Combined Heat and Power Production. Environmental and Climate Technologies. Vol.12, 2013, pp.10-14. ISSN 1691-5208. e-ISSN 2255-8837. Available from: doi:10.2478/rtuect-2013-0010

Publication language
English (en)
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