The Effects of Biomass Availability and Preparation on the Sustainability of Power Plants in Croatia

Energy production from biomass (wood chips) is necessarily limited by its renewability, availability, distance of sustainable supply, preparation and overall exploitation efficiency. A strong encouragement to the construction of plants that produce electricity and heat often represents variable and optimistic assessment of availability and renewability of various types and forms of biomass (especially wood chips), as well as the quality and type of consumers. Possible effects on sustainable cost-effectiveness have been analysed as related to sustainable cost-effectiveness of combined heat and power plants and also heating plants with a special critical consideration of the significance of the production, purpose, conditions, manner and consumption location of electricity and heat. Quantified values present possible limitations and insecurity of using energy transformation in the estimated exploitation period.