| Renewable resources are a potentially important, but little developed, part of the national energy strategy in the United States. Bioenergy crops are a type of renewable resource. Bioenergy crops are crops produced specifically for their energy content. Switchgrass is a bioenergy crop that can be produced in Tennessee. Currently, there is no market nor commercial production for switchgrass.; This study examined the economic feasibility of switchgrass production and utilization for electric power production in Tennessee. Economic feasibility of switchgrass utilization related to location of production area, electric facility location, production and transport costs, and harvesting method. Break-even analysis was used to determine a production cost for switchgrass. A geographical information system, the Regional Integrated Biomass Assessment (RIBA) model, established a link between soil types, anticipated yields, political boundary data, natural boundary data, harvesting techniques, and costs of production of switchgrass as well as costs of production of other traditional crops.; Five scenarios were developed to examine the economic feasibility of switchgrass utilization relative to coal as a fuel source for electric power generation in Tennessee. Three of these scenarios incorporated use of a subsidy to account for the environmental damage to society caused by burning coal. The fifth scenario incorporated use of the one and one-half cent per kilowatt hour rebate to electricity producers. These scenarios analyzed two types of harvesting systems for three different size switchgrass fueled electric generation plants.; Economic feasibility of switchgrass was examined at the state, regional, and plant level. All levels showed considerable reductions in both production costs and transport costs by the utilization of the staggered harvest method instead of the traditional farming method. A social cost analysis comparing the combined subsidy to the kilowatt hour rebate was performed. There was a greater gain to society in using the combined sulfur and carbon dioxide subsidy than by the kilowatt hour rebate.; Conclusions are that switchgrass production, harvesting, and transport for end use in electric power generation is economically feasible in Tennessee if environmental impacts are included in the costs of competing fuels. |
