Biomass town development and opportunities for integrated biomass utilization

This section focuses on the development of a Diagnostic Evaluation Model for Biomass Circulation (DEMBC), which allows the researcher to diagnose regional resources and evaluate opportunities and alternative policies for utilizing biomass. There are three parts to the research. First, the DEMBC was developed with a sub-model, which analysed energy, economic efficiency and greenhouse gases (GHG). Second, the model was applied to 71 municipalities with a regional variety of resources. In addition, environmental effects and eco-efficiency were diagnosed and evaluated in the regions affected by the political development of biomass systems. Last, 24 municipalities designated as “Japanese biomass towns” were interviewed. Based on the results of this evaluation with DEMBC, an understanding was achieved of those biomass towns from the perspective of eco-efficiency, and the towns were categorized into groups using principal component analysis. Finally, some common tendencies and particular parameters of the social conditions for planning, of incentives to introduce the business, and of the decision-making process were extracted.

Related Subject(s): Economic and Social Development