Optimization model for biomass harvest and energy production. The Lake Como case study

The main objective of this work is to evaluate the economic feasibility of a distributed energy system, supplied with a renewable source: the wood biomass. The system is composed by 11 potential locations and we want to determine which is the most convenient configuration in terms of technology adopted, power size and the position where to harvest the raw material. For every possible plant, it has been found the thermal load diagram using the values from the CEER cadastre, namely the administrative database containing the performance index parameters for buildings acclimatization. The technologies adopted are the Organic Rankine Cycle, the Gasification and the Pyrolysis. The territory comprehends two Highland Community bordering on Como lake, where it is possible to harvest the biomass. Thanks to environmental data related to the tree species and a sustainable harvest rate per hectare, we obtained the total amount of wood available in the study area. The cost of harvest has been modelled as a function of the technology used. The zone where it is possible to yield the biomass, it has been divided into 200 georeferenced parcels and after the creation of a road network we defined the distance between the parcels and the possible plants in a GIS software. The results are obtained constraining the system to be economically feasible in terms of having a payback period around 10 years. This way to look at the energy production from renewable sources it still needs incentives throw the green certificates.