The study aimed to develop and present a basis for making calculations and decisions for forest enterprises interested in producing fuel wood. The following hypothesis lay at the centre of the study: forest enterprises can produce fuel wood ex heating plant profitably under the investigated conditions. Looking at the results as a whole, this can be affirmed, even though especially the prices heating plants pay for wood chips do vacillate considerably, and revenues in many cases therefore do not cover the production costs of the logistic chains investigated. The fuel wood potential alone would cover over 10 % of energy requirements in Bavaria; currently just 2.5 % of energy requirements are covered in this way. A third of the energy is used for heating purposes. Firewood in the form of logs, pellets and wood chips are cost leaders on the growing “regenerative heat” market. Given the rising scarcity and prices of fossil fuels, fuel wood prices are likely to rise. In deciding whether a forest enterprise should produce wood chips and which process it should use, many things should be taken into consideration. If variables change (another forest stand, other customers, a change in the situation regarding forest protection), new decisions will have to be made. The utility analysis tool is a suitable instrument for making well-founded, comparable decisions which can be reconstrued later. The analysis can be carried out quickly with the computer. A relevant program is presented as part of the study and used with examples. Especially given the foreseeable increase in the thermal utilization of wood, forest enterprises should see that they set up individually optimised logistic chains as early as possible for producing wood chips, and also become involved as far as possible themselves as operators or shareholders in new energy plants.
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The study aimed to develop and present a basis for making calculations and decisions for forest enterprises interested in producing fuel wood. The following hypothesis lay at the centre of the study: forest enterprises can produce fuel wood ex heating plant profitably under the investigated conditions. Looking at the results as a whole, this can be affirmed, even though especially the prices heating plants pay for wood chips do vacillate considerably, and revenues in many cases therefore do not...
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