Biomass Cofiring in Coal Power Plants and its Impact on Agriculture in the United States

We analyze the effects on local biomass supply, demand, and prices of co-firing requirement for existing coal-fired power plants. The co-firing requirement is imposed on 398 existing power plants. The biomass feedstock can come from corn stover, wheat straw, switchgrass, and/or forest residues. Our model incorporates county-level biomass supply as well as national crop commodity demand. A solution to the model consists of county biomass prices and national crop prices. Keywords: Biomass, co-firing, land-use, commodity prices