Feasibility Study on Wood Biomass Power Generation in Wakayama Prefecture

Abstract

 This study examined the suitability of municipalities in Wakayama Prefecture for the construction of a wood biomass power plant. The study considered seven indicators: energy made from available wood biomass, existence of competition for wood chips, distance between Wakayama city and the plant construction site, forest abundance, cost of transporting from the chip plant, cost of wood transporting from forest site, and grid connection cost. The indicators used in the study were able to be categorized as focusing on either "the stable procurement of fuel (cost)" or "the collection of capital investment (delivery)." The positive and negative aspects of each municipality were also tabulated and considered. Tanabe city, Katsuragi town and Hidakagawa town had higher scores in five indicators, suggesting that these city and towns in Wakayama Prefecture would be suitable for the construction of wood biomass power plants.