Forest resource, slope, public and forest road layers of Geographic Information System (GIS) were obtained from a prefecture, where a model area was located, in order to calculate harvesting costs of forest biomass resources. Future forest resources at each stand were predicted using Richard's growth curves. Then, stand harvesting schedules were planned by balancing harvesting volumes of forest biomass resources using random search while minimizing harvesting costs. Balanced harvesting forest biomass resources will be sufficient to supply electricity to 24.8% of houses in the model area. According to harvesting volumes, logging residues and thinned trees were harvested based on the schedule. If the forest biomass resources are not sufficient, broad-leaved forests are harvested to meet sufficient volumes. According to harvesting costs, logging residues were the cheapest, 5,000yen/ton, followed by broad-leaved forests, 11,000yen/ton; thinned trees were the most costly, 15,000yen/ton. Fuel cost of electricity, 19.45yen/kWh, was much higher by comparing with electricity price in Japan, 18.17yen/kWh. In order to use forest biomass resources as energy, it is necessary to reduce harvesting costs remarkably by developing forest road network and machines for harvesting and transporting forest biomass resources efficiently.
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