Impact of increased biomass electricity generation on forest health

Ashkan Mirzaee, Ronald McGarvey, Francisco Aguilar & Erin Schliep

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Abstract

Biopower, the electricity generated from woody biomass, is considered as a carbon neutral and renewable source of energy that can be co-fired in power plants in order to cut carbon pollution. In this research, an optimization model is developed to identify the optimal amount of electricity to be generated from woody biomass, natural gas, and coal at a candidate set of US power plants. The MILP model minimizes the total cost of generating the required electricity projected to be demanded by the EIA through 2030, with environmental and spatially-explicit woody biomass availability constraints.

Presentation

INFORMS Annual Meeting 2020 was held November 8-11, 2020 online. You can watch my presentation in “Analytics for Public Needs and Safety” session in here: