Motivation and Scope

The challenge for future energy policy is to achieve a sustainable transition towards energy security with reduced vulnerability of energy supply to risks of future disruptions, disasters and conflicts in the energy sector (Scheffran/Singer 2004). Growing concern about climate change and energy security has led to increasing interest in developing domestically available renewable energy sources for meeting the electricity, heating and fuel needs in the United States.

Illinois renewable energy potential

A recent study on the economic and environmental impacts of renewable energy sources in Illinois (Bournakis et al. 2005) analyzes the renewable portfolio standard which requires that, by 2006, at least 2% of the electricity sold to Illinois customers be generated from renewable resources. The amount of electricity from renewable resources is required to increase at least by 1% annually, reaching at least 8% in 2012 and 16% in 2020. Meeting these targets by 2020 would require construction of renewable energy facilities capable of delivering about 12,500,000 Megawatthours in 2012 and about 28,000,000 Megawatthours (MWh) in 2020. Illinois has considerable potential to use wind energy resources, biomass and biowaste for energy generation to meet these targets. Illinois ranks fifth in the Midwest and 16th in the US for wind power potential. The Governor’s 2005 Renewable Energy Plan could enable 3000 MW of wind power by 2012 in Illinois.

Biomass and biowaste

Illinois also has significant potential to grow perennial grasses that can provide bioenergy. A 1993 report concluded that “homegrown biomass energy could create jobs in Illinois, keep energy dollars in state, reduce air pollution and soil erosion, and provide many other environmental benefits, all at competitive costs.” (Brower et al. 1993) This potential was expanded upon by Heaton et al. (2004a). Recent research on Miscanthus has shown that this low-input perennial may have biomass yields that are about double those of switchgrass and corn (Heaton et al. 2004b, Khanna et al., 2006). Earlier trials with this crop demonstrated a large decrease in nitrogen loss to drainage water and decreased water use (Beal/Long, 1997, Beale et al. 1999).

Biowaste is another relevant source of energy and material that can be used more efficiently than it is now. Recycling and using biowaste in agriculture and energy production can serve to build an infrastructure and support for extended use of biomass and biofuel/biogas as an alternative to fossil oil and gas with lower emissions (Johnke/Scheffran/Soyez 2004). According to Bournakis et al. (2005) landfills provide a substantial opportunity for energy generation in Illinois, estimated to be more than 300 MW of installed generation capacity. By decomposing solid waste one can produce biogas, which can be recovered at a relatively low cost for energy production and also reduces emissions of volatile organic compounds and methane, a powerful global warming gas. Biogas can fuel a wide variety of commercially available electric generating technologies, in addition to mill wastes, forest residues, agricultural residues, and animal manure.

Renewable energy and land use

Land requirements from establishing wind farms and growing biomass crops compete with existing profitable land uses, which in the case of Illinois, is primarily in row crop agriculture. Additionally, wind energy and biomass energy differ in their costs and benefits too. Biomass crops have the potential to not only displace coal in power plants and thereby reduce carbon emissions, but they can also sequester carbon in the soil. Moreover, biomass can be stored to provide a more reliable source of fuel as compared to wind. Wind power can be easier transmited over long distances where these resources are not available.

This project examines the feasibility, economics and environmental implications of alternative energy sources in Illinois, particularly, wind, biomass and biowaste. This feasibility is expected to vary across the landscape in Illinois, which is heterogeneous in its soil quality and climatic conditions, and therefore in the profitability of various land uses.

For example, southern Illinois with its higher soil temperatures and soil moisture and fewer frost days is more suitable for the production of biomass crops than northern Illinois. Also, yields of corn and soybean are much higher in central Illinois than in southern Illinois, thus reducing the attractiveness of biomass crops there. Additionally, the cost of transporting biomass from production regions to local power plants for electricity generation may be significant and need to be accounted for. The production of biomass is therefore more likely to occur in areas closer to the demand centers. As a result, the opportunity cost of using agricultural land for wind farms or for growing biomass crops is expected to differ spatially.

Any study examining the economic viability of these renewable energy sources is linked to a study of the economics of switching land from row crops to renewable energy production. The choice among alternative sources of renewable energy is not an “either/or” alternative but rather one of finding the optimal mix of energy sources that can be used. The latter involves determining the spatial pattern of land that should be allocated to traditional agriculture, to wind farms and to biomass crops, among other uses.

Impact on emission reduction

An important goal is to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions through sustainable energy and land use. Several arguments support the need to include emissions from land use in mitigation strategies.

(1) Future unconstrained emissions from land use may be underestimated. For instance, the Special Report on Emissions Scenarios (SRES) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) does not span the full range of uncertainty which is 1.4 ­ 3.0 Gigatons of carbon per year for land-use (Houghton, 2003).
(2) Even if cumulative emissions reductions over a century timescale are small relative to total requirements, land-use emissions reductions available over the next several decades may be a much larger proportion of total requirements.
(3) Emissions reductions from land use change will have high value during periods when marginal costs of reductions from energy use are high.
(4) A full accounting for the importance of reducing emissions from land use change must include non-CO2 gases.

Objectives

• The collaborative research with this project seeks to develop a cross-disciplinary and integrated approach towards energy security and sustainability for Illinois through greater reliance on the state’s renewable resources.
• A fundamental theme is to determine environmentally responsible and economically efficient land-use options for the widespread implementation of renewables.
• To establish a secure and economically cost-effective infrastructure for the energy supply of Illinois, the research maps current and future potentials for renewable energy resources and uses in Illinois and identifies obstacles and opportunities, according to a set of evaluation criteria (costs and benefits, market potential, economic, social and environmental implications).