Development of an energetic plan in an alpine district

In Alpine areas the potential of biomass for energy production is considerable. Forest residues, hay from abandoned meadows and pastures, and sawmill residues mainly represent biomass resources in those areas. Biomass supplies, intermediate and final storage, delivery to heating power plants represent the biomass-energy chain. Geographical location of the biomass supplies is one of the most important features of this chain and analysis methodologies based on a GIS (Geographical Information System) for evaluating biomass availability show a great potential. The study concerns the feasibility of a heating power plant for a school park fueled by biomass recovered in an alpine district. The allocation of biomass potentials from forest residues and hay from abandoned meadows and pastures is based on an analysis of different data collected from land use database, cartographies, transport network map and DEM (Digital Elevation Model). The productivity of abandoned pastures and meadows was evaluated through a specific algorithm, which considers altitude, exposition and slope; the productivity of the forest residues was calculated considering the forest inventory data. Two biomass supply chains were considered; for each one of them, the productivity of different machinery working systems was calculated through field surveys and time-study