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Biomass
Biomass Cost
The key financial variable for biomass-based electricity is fuel access. As most biomass fuels are bulky and of relatively low energy density, transport costs quickly become prohibitive outside a radius of 50 to 75 miles. This also limits facility size—the average biomass plant has a capacity of 20 MW. Because of collection and transport costs, most biomass plants are located on-site – that is, as close as possible to the fuel.
The costs of biomass fuel vary considerably. At the low end are electricity production facilities located at industrial sites (such as lumber mills), where the fuel is already there, of known consistency, and essentially free (or at a negative net cost, if burning it avoids disposal costs). At the high end are facilities that must collect fuel, transport it, and process it before burning. Typical biomass fuel costs are in the range of $0 to $5 per million Btu.
Widely varying technologies, fuel costs, and fuel types result in wide variations in biomass electricity production costs. According to DOE
estimates, a typical direct-fired biomass plant
produces electricity at about 9 cents/kWh, but
this varies considerably.
Although there are several new technologies and crop management techniques being researched, these will not have a significant effect on cost in the next few years. Unlike photovoltaics and wind turbines, the costs of biomass-based electricity are not on a steep technology-driven downward curve. Costs are instead dominated by fuel access.
Costs of landfill methane are less variable: these plants can typically produce electricity at 6 to 8 cents per kWh. Larger landfills are often required to install gas recovery systems - making the marginal cost of the energy recovery system the appropriate consideration for determining electricity production costs. Costs of energy recovery systems alone are typically about 5 cents per kWh.
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