Co-firing coal with wood pellets for U.S. electricity generation: A real options analysis

Use coal or invest in renewables: a real options analysis of energy investments in the Philippines

“…In line with previous literatures, this study assumes that price of coal is stochastic that changes randomly over time and follows geometric Brownian motion (GBM) with a drift (Tietjen et al 2016;Wang and Du 2016;Xian et al 2015). Dixit and Pindyck (1994) presents the stochastic price process as where α and σ are parameters of drift and variance representing mean and volatility of the price process, dt is the infinitesimal time increment, and dz is the increment of the Wiener process equal to ε t √ dt such that ε t ∼ N (0, 1) .…”

Transatlantic wood pellet trade demonstrates telecoupled benefits

“…European nations have been seeking to mitigate climate change through the reduction of GHG emissions from existing coal-powered electricity plants (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 2014). The natural gas infrastructure and pipelines in Europe are not as developed as they are in the United States, making the option of gas-fired power too expensive within that region (Xian et al 2015). The European Commission has identified wood pellets as the most economical way to convert biomass materials to fuel to help meet the EU's renewable energy goals (Beckman 2015), and wood pellets have a higher thermal energy content than typical biomass sources because they are produced through compression (U.S. Department of Commerce International Trade Administration 2016).…”

“…Although woody biomass could theoretically be used for local biopower production, the recent drop in U.S. natural gas prices coupled with the lobbying strength of the U.S. coal industry have prevented the development of a SE US market for wood pellets (Xian et al 2015, Mei andWetzstein 2017). Bagged wood pellets have been used for home heating in the northeastern United States since the 1930s (Spelter and Toth 2009), but opposition to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Clean Power Plan proposal and lack of incentives have hampered growth of wood-based biopower at an industrial scale (Xian et al 2015). Thus, U.S. wood pellet exports have far outstripped domestic use over the past several years.…”

Life cycle assessment of co-firing coal and wood pellets in the Southeastern United States

“…Despite the emergence of the wood pellet export sector, electric utilities in the United States are not employing the bioenergy technology of co-firing wood pellets within existing coal power plants (Xian et al, 2015). As of November 2015, wood biomass accounts for less than half a percent (0.38%) of net electricity generation in the United States (EIA, 2016a).…”