Short rotation forestry in Italy: state-of-the-art and trends

摘要

Raffaele Spinelli and Gianni Picchi of CNR - Ivalsa, Sesto Fiorentino (Fl), Italy, report on short rotation coppice and transitional variations towards short rotation forestry. The cumulated power of the Italian wood-fuelled district heating stationsalready amounts to over 200 MW, while that of power plants has reached 400 MW: this results in a large demand for woodfuel, estimated to be a total of 4m tonnes per year, and ties up most " of the available, non-treated industrial wood residue. There aremany projects for building new plants, but further development of the bioenergy sector depends on our capacity to mobilise the primary land resource, through more efficient management of existing forests and the establishment of dedicated wood crops. The latter solution finds favour in the agricultural sector, which is looking for new roles, after the recent changes in the CAP.