木質バイオマス発電事業と次世代施設園芸の連携について

Abstract

In recent years in Japan, growth of the domestic forestry industry has been touted through a variety of policy measures, including promotion of the use of local forest material, such as wood biomass, especially as an energy source. However, the meager efficiency in the small-scale biomass power generation prompts multiple energy use, such as cogeneration (i.e. electric power and heat) and trigeneration (i.e. electric power, heat, and carbon dioxide). One of promising destinations of biproducts of woodbiomass trigeneration, heat and carbon dioxiyde, is the "next generation" horticulture, or production in greenhouses equipped with mass-scale, advanced environmental control capability. This study evaluates business potential of woody biomass power generation of which residual heat and carbon dioxide are utilized in the next-generation horticulture production. The study resulted in the following findings: 1) it is hardly possible to establish a financially viable woody biomass powerplant by itself; 2) calculated economic gains from productions of leafy lettuce and strawberry in next-generation greenhouses respectively proves their possible business feasibility; and 3) a 1.5-hectare next-generation greenhouse producing leafy lettuce combined with a small-scale woody biomass powerhouse demonstrated improvements in the balance of payment structure.