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Energies
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Community-Led Wood-Based Bioenergy Development
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Community-Led Wood-Based Bioenergy Development

A special issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073). This special issue belongs to the section "A4: Bio-Energy".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (28 November 2022) | Viewed by 9668
Submit your paper and select the Journal "Energies" and the Special Issue "Community-Led Wood-Based Bioenergy Development" via: https://susy.mdpi.com/user/manuscripts/upload?journal=energies. Please contact the guest editor or the journal editor ([email protected]) for any queries.

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Nicolas Mansuy

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Natural Resources Canada, Canadian Forest Service, Northern Forestry Centre, 5320 122 st., Edmonton, AB T6H 3S5, Canada
Interests: forest bioeconomy and bioenergy; sustainable forest management; community-based management; protected areas; ecosystem services; climate change mitigation; ecology of natural disturbances; ecological restoration
Dr. Ryan Bullock

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Canada Research Chair in Human-Environment Interactions, Environmental Studies and Sciences, The University of Winnipeg, Winnipeg, MB, Canada
Interests: co-management; community and Indigenous forestry; northern development; adaptation; environmental governance

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Increasing renewable energy production is fundamental to sustainable development as well as to mitigating climate change. Rural and remote communities are heavily dependent on diesel fuel as a reliable source of energy for heating, electricity generation and transportation. However, many of these diesel systems are based on old technology and past their end-of-life. Current reliance on fossil fuel combustion is also environmentally detrimental, with far-reaching negative economic, health and societal impacts that can no longer be ignored. While energy policies are looking to increase renewable energy capacity by encouraging large-scale developments, there has been growing interest in the scope for alternative small-scale, rural and remote and community-led renewable energy development. Remote and rural communities, such as Indigenous communities, are often surrounded by large, forested areas, and therefore are well positioned to tap into this vast biomass resource to meet their energy needs and mitigate climate change. In addition to climate change mitigation objectives, community-led bioenergy systems can support the self-governance goals of communities and improve the local economy by creating jobs, revenues and new expertise. This Special Issue aims to advance and document the multiple benefits, but also the barriers, in developing community-based bioenergy systems. In this context, the Special Issue invites multidisciplinary contributions, on topics including, but not limited to:

  • Environment and sustainable development of bioenergy supply chains: development of sustainable biomass supply chains with demonstrated impacts on climate change and greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions  mitigation
  • Integrated land use management: identify impacts and measures to mitigate biomass removal on ecosystem and biodiversity and avoid competition with traditional land uses
  • Logistic and technology: identify successful technologies that support cost-effective and reliable biomass supply chains (i.e., transportation, storage, conversion) adapted to rural and remote conditions
  • Socio-economic assessment: assess the business case of bioenergy projects with cost-benefits analyses. Evaluate jobs and revenue creation for the communities
  • Building capacity and knowledge: restore local governance and leadership to support community-led projects. Develop capacity by supporting and facilitating knowledge transfer (i.e., data, technology, expertise) for and among communities

Dr. Nicolas Mansuy
Dr. Ryan Bullock
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Energies is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Challenges and barriers
  • Climate change mitigation
  • Community-based management
  • Cost-benefit analysis
  • Energy independence
  • Feedstock
  • Forest residues
  • Governance
  • Indigenous community
  • Off-grid
  • Regulation and legal frameworks for energy communities
  • Rural and remote community
  • Sustainable forest management
  • Traditional knowledge
  • Woody biomass

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Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

15 pages, 523 KiB  
Article
Bioenergy for Community Energy Security in Canada: Challenges in the Business Ecosystem
by Vikas Menghwani, Rory Wheat, Bobbie Balicki, Greg Poelzer, Bram Noble and Nicolas Mansuy
Energies 2023, 16(4), 1560; https://doi.org/10.3390/en16041560 - 4 Feb 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1776
Abstract
Bioenergy represents a viable renewable alternative for the many off-grid remote communities in Northern Canada that rely on diesel-based energy infrastructure. Despite the abundance of forest-based biomass, bioenergy for heat and power in Canada is used primarily in industrial contexts. Community-scale bioenergy, although [...] Read more.
Bioenergy represents a viable renewable alternative for the many off-grid remote communities in Northern Canada that rely on diesel-based energy infrastructure. Despite the abundance of forest-based biomass, bioenergy for heat and power in Canada is used primarily in industrial contexts. Community-scale bioenergy, although growing, has been limited. Supply chain challenges, institutional and policy arrangements, and community perspectives indicate a need to better understand the ‘business ecosystem’ for bioenergy in Canada. The ecosystem includes technologies, community contexts, suppliers, developers, and policy makers. In this study, we explore the bioenergy business ecosystem challenges and perspectives from supply-side stakeholders. Interviews were conducted with representatives from the government, industry, and community—all working in bioenergy. The results indicate the following challenges facing the bioenergy ecosystem, with respect to community energy security: lack of cross-jurisdictional consistency in legislation and policies across Canada, structural issues such as subsidized energy and utility ownership, and misdirected support for local capacity building in the bioenergy sector. We also find that the existing support systems are prone to misuse, pointing to efficiency gaps in investment flows. The insights that emerge from this work, especially from industry stakeholders, are meaningful for communities and policy makers alike. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Community-Led Wood-Based Bioenergy Development)
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17 pages, 1327 KiB  
Article
Harvesting Local Energy: A Case Study of Community-Led Bioenergy Development in Galena, Alaska
by Vikas Menghwani, Chad Walker, Tim Kalke, Bram Noble and Greg Poelzer
Energies 2022, 15(13), 4655; https://doi.org/10.3390/en15134655 - 25 Jun 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1869
Abstract
Community-led bioenergy projects show great promise to address a range of issues for remote and Indigenous Arctic communities that typically rely on diesel for meeting their energy demands. However, there is very little research devoted to better understanding what makes individual projects successful. [...] Read more.
Community-led bioenergy projects show great promise to address a range of issues for remote and Indigenous Arctic communities that typically rely on diesel for meeting their energy demands. However, there is very little research devoted to better understanding what makes individual projects successful. In this study, we analyze the case of the Galena Bioenergy Project (Alaska)—a biomass heating project that uses locally sourced woody biomass to help meet the heating demands of a large educational campus. Using project documents and other publicly available reports, we evaluate the project’s success using three indicators: operational, environmental, and community level socio-economic benefits. We find that the project shows signs of success in all three respects. It has a reliable fuel supply chain for operations, makes contributions towards greenhouse gas reductions by replacing diesel and has improved energy and economic security for the community. We also examine enabling factors behind the project’s success and identify the following factors as crucial: community-level input and support, state level financial support, access to forest biomass with no competing use, predictable demand and committed leadership. Our findings have important implications for other remote communities across the Boreal zone—especially those with nearby forest resources. Our examination of this case study ultimately highlights potential pathways for long-term success and, more specifically, shows how biomass resources might be best utilized through community-led initiatives to sustainably support energy security in Arctic communities. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Community-Led Wood-Based Bioenergy Development)
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13 pages, 1046 KiB  
Article
Economic, Technological as Well as Environmental and Social Aspects of Local Use of Wood By-Products Generated in Sawmills for Energy Purposes
by Katarzyna Mydlarz and Marek Wieruszewski
Energies 2022, 15(4), 1337; https://doi.org/10.3390/en15041337 - 12 Feb 2022
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 2208
Abstract
The article is the first in a series of works presenting the potential and possibilities of using for energy purposes wood waste and wood by-products generated at various stages of production in companies of the wood industry. The management of all wood waste [...] Read more.
The article is the first in a series of works presenting the potential and possibilities of using for energy purposes wood waste and wood by-products generated at various stages of production in companies of the wood industry. The management of all wood waste and wood by-products is a pending issue due to the growing importance of the circular economy and broadly understood environmental protection. It is the environmental aspects and the climate targets defined by the EU that are the basis to determine the precise courses of action for the Member States and, as a result, also for companies. The article proves that regardless of the decisions taken by governments of individual countries in terms of broadly understood environmental protection, companies are free to implement pro-environmental solutions as part of their business activity. Due to the broad subject of the management of waste and by-products generated in different units of the wood industry, the possibilities of their use in terms of energy in primary wood processing companies–sawmills—are presented first. On the example of selected entities, the energy potential and possibilities of generating energy from renewable sources taking into account the principles of circular economy are presented. The possibilities of optimising production by improving redistribution of thermal energy, which may result in improving the economic efficiency of the assessed enterprises, were indicated. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Community-Led Wood-Based Bioenergy Development)
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16 pages, 2826 KiB  
Article
De-Risking Wood-Based Bioenergy Development in Remote and Indigenous Communities in Canada
by Jennifer Buss, Nicolas Mansuy and Sebnem Madrali
Energies 2021, 14(9), 2603; https://doi.org/10.3390/en14092603 - 2 May 2021
Cited by 12 | Viewed by 3141
Abstract
Remote and Indigenous communities in Canada have a unique opportunity to mobilize the vast amount of wood-based biomass to meet their energy needs, while supporting a local economy, and reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This study realized in collaboration with five remote and [...] Read more.
Remote and Indigenous communities in Canada have a unique opportunity to mobilize the vast amount of wood-based biomass to meet their energy needs, while supporting a local economy, and reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This study realized in collaboration with five remote and Indigenous communities across Canada investigates the main barriers and potential solutions to developing stable and sustainable wood-based bioenergy systems. Our results highlight that despite the differences in available biomass and geographical context, these communities face common policy, economic, operational, cultural, social, and environmental risks and barriers to developing bioenergy. The communities identified and ranked the biggest barriers as follows; the high initial investment of bioenergy projects, the logistical and operational challenges of developing a sustainable wood supply chain in remote locations, and the limited opportunities for community leadership of bioenergy projects. Environmental risks have been ranked as the least important by all the communities, except for the communities in Manitoba, which ranked it as the second most important risk. However, all the communities agreed that climate change is the main environmental driver disturbing the wood-based bioenergy supply chain. To de-risk the wood-based bioenergy system, we suggest that stable and sustainable supply chains can be implemented by restoring community-based resources management supported by local knowledge and workforce. Using local knowledge can also help reduce the impacts caused by biomass harvesting on the ecosystem and avoid competition with traditional land uses. Including positive externalities to cost benefit analysis, when comparing bioenergy systems to existing energy installation, will likely make bioenergy projects more attractive for the community financially. Alternatively, supporting co-learning between partners and among communities can improve knowledge and innovation sharing. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Community-Led Wood-Based Bioenergy Development)
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