Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book examines key problems concerning the infrastructure necessary to support a given project and investigates the status and outlook for bioenergy marketing and distribution. It investigates the role of the individual project in fitting into existing national bioenergy-related policy and the problems of converting individual projects into larger programs. The book shows that bioenergy project planners selecting potential crop sites must try to make sense of the usually incomplete and conflicting data on land use that are generally available. It argues that the planting and harvesting of biomass for energy can bring about significant environmental impacts, although biomass as such is a ubiquitous feature of any natural environment. The book focuses on the economic and social systems that constrain and support the individual bioenergy project.