Abstract
Methods to assess wood-based bioenergy projects have tended to focus on technological and physical constraints. Less is known about how longer-term environmental, economic, and social systems—the three pillars of sustainable development—have influenced technological development in the context of woody biomass energy. This research offers new methods for assessing the sustainability of wood-based energy projects by combining spatial analysis, semi-structured interviews, and archival data analysis. By integrating quantitative and qualitative methods, this project offers ways to understand how social and environmental dynamics from the past shape technological development in the future. A propensity analysis of biomass energy plants in Michigan, USA was performed using US Census data grouped by social, economic, and environmental categories. This quantitative analysis helped to characterize community and landscape types in which woody biomass plants were developed in Michigan in the late-twentieth century. To help illustrate some of the often-hidden social and political dimensions of energy development, such as access to decision-making and attitudes toward bioenergy projects, transcripts of public hearings, media coverage, and other archival sources were examined, and 30 stakeholder interviews were conducted. By integrating these qualitative and quantitative approaches, this paper aims to provide a more comprehensive approach to assessing the sustainability of wood-based biofuel technologies.
Highlights
Quantitative, spatial, and qualitative data were combined to determine how different variables shaped the technological development of woody biomass systems in Michigan, USA
To complement the spatial analysis and help explain some of the broad environmental, economic, and social patterns revealed in the Random Forest (RF) analysis, we examined local and regional variation using semi-structured interviews, documentary analysis, and additional spatial analysis in three case-study communities: Baraga County in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula where the L’Anse Warden Plant is located; Crawford County in the northern Lower Peninsula, home of the Grayling Generating Station; and Genesee County in southern Michigan where the Genesee Power Station is located
Historical research on the three case-study communities revealed that because industrialscale biomass technologies were often linked to the physical and political infrastructure created in the era of fossil fuels, the politics of industrial-scale renewable energy projects often mirrored that of a prior era
Summary
Wood is humanity’s oldest fuel source and one that may fit well into circular economies of the future. To use wood-based energy technologies sustainably, developers and policymakers must consider a wide range of factors that are specific to particular locations. The terms “renewable energy,” “alternative energy,” “appropriate energy,” and “clean energy” arose at different moments, but all aimed to provide alternatives to fossil-based fuels, which tended to concentrate the distribution of economic benefits and environmental burdens [1,2,3,4]. Many energy developers have embraced the idea of sustainable development, as articulated in the 1987 Brundtland Report “Our Common Future.”. This report defined sustainable development as that which meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs [5]. Most conceptions of sustainability emphasize three overlapping spheres: Economic viability, environmental protection, and social wellbeing (Figure 1)
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