Renewable resources and land use (NaRoLa) - Integration of bioenergy into a sustainable energy strategy

Nachwachsende Rohstoffe und Landnutzung (NaRoLa) - Integration der Bioenergie in ein nachhaltiges Energiekonzept

Funding

Federal Ministry of Education and Research
Bundesministerium fuer Bildung und Forschung

Duration

Start 2007

Organisation

Project leader: Kiel Institute for the World Economy, Kiel, Germany

Consortium composed by:

• Johann Heinrich von Thünen-Institut - Bundesforschungsinstitut für Ländliche Räume, Wald und Fischerei (vTI), Braunschweig, Germany
  
• University of Bonn, Institute for Food and Resource Economics, Chair of Resource and Environmental Economics, Bonn, Germany
  
• Meó Consulting Team, Wiesbaden, Germany
  
• EuroCARE GmbH

Objectives

The objective of the NaRoLa project is the development of an integrated modeling system that connects the interdependencies on global energy markets with the potential for biomass production in Germany.

This modeling system will allow an analysis of the contribution of biomass to a sustainable energy supply and the assessment of its economic, environmental and social consequences. Special attention will also be given to competitive conditions on international energy and agricultural markets together with the relevant EU and WTO administered competition rules.

The precise research questions to be answered during the course of this project are : with a focus on Germany:

• Which role can biomass / renewable resources play in energy generation?
• Which are the national and international economic feedback effects of bioenergy use and the resulting consequences for the role of bioenergy in an optimal energy mix with respect to climate policies?
• What is the impact of bioenergy on land use, sectoral production, factor input, and incomes?
• What are the impacts of energy policies on regional land use and allocation of bioenergy plants taking into account the arable potentials and travel costs?
• What are the environmental consequences of increased bioenergy production?
• How does the expansion of the bioenergy sector contribute to the development of rural areas?
• How can the complex interdependencies be modeled on different scales and between sectors?

Tasks for EuroCARE

The development of the integrated modeling system, the analysis of the contribution of biomass to a sustainable energy supply in Germany and the assessment of its economic, environmental and social consequences will be pursuit in four overlapping and partly running in parallel research modules (see menu on left-hand side for detailed information on the different models). EuroCARE supports the models with data on production, input and trade.