Economic evaluations for short-rotation biomass production systems

Economic evaluations were added, for the first time, as a formal ‘Activity’ in the 1986 International Energy Agency Bioenergy Agreement task II. The objective of the ‘Activity’ was to economically evaluate the state of the art for short-rotation biomass production systems. This was done through three significant economic workshops, a comprehensive annotated bibliography, the development and testing of a standardized cost accounting spreadsheet for reporting cost informations, and the publishing of numerous technical papers. Given the economic climate during 1986–88, short-rotation woody crop systems for energy appeared marginal in most instances without government incentives.