Spatial planning for biomass resource

management in Põlva county, Estonia

Peeter Muiste, Allar Padari

Planning types

1) national spatial plan, which is prepared for the entire territory of the state with the aim of defining the prospective development of the territory of the state and the settlement systems located therein in a generalised and strategic manner

2) county plan, which is prepared with the aim of defining the prospective development of the territory of a county in a generalised manner and determining the location of the principal infrastructure facilities;

3) comprehensive plan, which is prepared with the aim of determining the general directions in and conditions for the development of the territory of a rural municipality or city, and of setting out the bases for the preparation of detailed plans for areas;

4) detailed plan, which is prepared with the aim of establishing land use provisions and building provisions for cities and towns and for other areas and in other cases where detailed planning is mandatory.

Administrative organisation

•The Government of the Republic shall initiate the preparation of a national spatial plan and the Ministry of the Environment shall administer the preparation of the plan.

•A county governor or the Government of the Republic shall initiate and administer the preparation of a county plan.

•A local government shall initiate and administer the preparation of a comprehensive plans and detailed plans.

Law, rules, main regulation:

1) Planning Act (Parliament of Estonia, entered into force 1. January 2003)

2) County Government development plan

3) Municipality Government development plan

Spatial planning for promotion of bioenergy

• In forestry and energy sector development programmes on state level the general goals of promotion of bioenergy is pointed out, but the instruments of spatial planning are not included. Among such programmes should be mentioned:

• The general document for planning forestry activities is the Estonian Forestry Development Programme 2001–2010

• Long-term Development Programme for the Estonian Fuel and Energy Sector up to year 2015 (2030)

• Long-term Development Programme of Promotion of Biomass and Bienergy year 2007 - 2013

• In energy sector the GIS data is used for assessment of the potential of biofuel resources and it is done for the needs of certain companies (consumers of wood fuel as boiler-houses, designers of new co-generation plants, big forest owners as State Forest Management Centre, Eesti Energia etc.).

• On the regional level (county or communes) in different development programmes (either general or specific areas, for example energy sector) the GIS data is used, but not spatial planning in carried out as there are no possibilities to influence the management of private forests or private agricultural lands.

• In Estonian conditions one of the first attempts on regional level was the “Energy development plan for Põlva County” where by means of spatial planning optimal scenarios of bioenergy potentials were drawn up.

Goals of the study (May-Dec.2006):

• Estimation of resources, environmental and social impacts, feasibility of utilization of local resources

• Prognosis until 2020

• General goal - to create a self-supply and independent area based on local renewable resources

Initial data

• the data about the fuel and electic energy consumption in the Põlva county

• the renewable energy resources of the county

– Forest biomass

– Herbaceous biomass

– Hydroenergy

– Wind energy

Data about forests

• The availability and the quality of forest inventory data is different by ownership categories.

• The databaseabout state forests is administrated by the State Forest Management Centre (SFMC) and this inventory data is sufficiently complete (as it is presented by forest stands and includes information about site types, distribution by tree species and age classes, diameters, height etc. , also forest management activities and different forest damages are reflected).

• Only a part of private forests is described by fresh inventory data

• The digitalized information about forest management activities in private forests is missing.

• Due to the afforestation of abandoned agricultural lands the forest area has increased. For these corrections the remote sensing data about Estonian forests should be used

Agricultural biomass

For modelling of agricultural residues and energy crops potential

in model regions the following maps can be used:

– Estonian digital base map

– Estonian Nature Information System

– Digital soils map

– Map layers from Agricultural Research Centre, Estonian

Land Board, Estonian Agricultural Registers and Information

Board (PRIA)

• The State Registry of Agricultural Data has been

established. Though this registry has not completed

yet it can provide algorithms of economical

decisions and additional data about soil quality,

productivity, status of humus-layer, need of

fertilizers, crop yeld, environmental restrictions etc.

Põlva county

• The area of the county is 2164 km2

• The population of the county is 32 601

• Population density in county is 15.1 inhabitants per km2

• The city of Põlva is the center of the county

Põlva rural municipalities

Production of heat energy

Consumption of wood fuels in 2005

Consumption of heat energy

Wood fuel resources

• The total land area of Põlva county is 215 342 ha, 103 400 ha of it is forest land (state forests 47 189 ha and private forests 56 210 ha).

• In Põlva county the distribution of forest land by protection categories is following – protected forests 3 018 ha, protection forests 10 568 ha ja commercial forests 89 814 ha *

– Protected forests focus on protection of rare and other valuable objects and therefore in these forests commercial activities are prohibited.

– In protection forests certain silvicultural activities are allowed by protection rules.

– Only in commercial forest all silvicultural activities are allowed in accordance with Forest Act and other regulations.

• Based on the initial forestry data the calculation of the potential yield of forests of Põlva county was carried out

• The calculation was based on the Estonian forest inventory data, functions of growth, algorithms of assortments and economical decisions

• Both the volumes of merchantable wood (logs, pulpwood, fuelwood) and harvesting residues were calculated

• Results were presented by municipalities

Potential yield of fuel wood by municipalities, thd m3

0,9

3,4

3

1

1,1

3,3

2,7

2,8

3,1 2,4

2,1

2,7

1,8

2,3

10,4

7,9

2,9

3,4

7,9

8,6

9,5

8,2 5,8

5,7

8,1

8,2

Fuel wood Tops, Brances

The data of power lines of rural network in South-Eastern region

11595023235 kV

67822033916/10/15/20 kV

4790768430.4 kV

Area haTotal width m

Protective zonesLengthkm

Type

11595023235 kV

67822033916/10/15/20 kV

4790768430.4 kV

Area haTotal width m

Protective zonesLengthkm

Type

330 kV and 220 kV power lines

330 kV, 220 kV, 110 kV, 35kV and 6 kV power lines

The potential quantities of biomass from

traces of different types of power lines in

Põlva county for 3-year cleaning period

Agricultural land use

Abandoned arable land

Mean soil quality on 100-point scale in Põlva rural municipalities

Mean available water capacity ( mm ) in a one - metre soil layer

Mean yield of barley on non-fertilized soil

Mean yield of barley if to use agronomically effective amount of fertilizers

Yield of straw

1 820

4 140

2 170

2 890

870

2 460

1 830

7 350

3 350

1 980

1 790

1 690

410

Yield of straw, t5 000

pohk

1 820

4 140

2 170

2 890

870

2 460

1 830

7 350

3 350

1 980

1 790

1 690

410

Yield of straw, t5 000

pohk

Peat resources in Põlva county

Average wind speed, (h=10m)

Potential of renewable energy resources and peat, GWh/a

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

Hydro

energ

y

Win

d en

egy

Natur

al b

rush

wood

Reed

Bioga

sPea

t

Tradit

iona

l fue

lwoo

d

Tops,

bra

nche

s

Wood

pro

cess

ing

resid

ues

Straw

Poten

tial o

f aba

ndon

ed la

nds

Mun

icipa

l was

te

Supply-demand balance of renewable resources by municipalities, GWh/a

-100

-50

0

50

100

150

200

Ahja

Kanep

i

Kõlles

te

Lahe

da

Miki

tam

äe

Moo

steOra

va

Põlva

Räpina

Valgjär

ve

Vasts

e-Kuu

ste

Verior

a

Värsk

a

GW

h/a

Consumption

Renewable resources

Balance

Based on the available biofuel resources and the

present consumption of heat energy one of the possible

future scenarios of generation of energy was worked

out:

• The smaller local boiler-houses are proposed to be converted from fossil

fuels to wood chips.

• In the settlements with concentrated heat energy consumption the co-

generation plansts operating on biogas are proposed and a big co-

generation plant operating on wood chips is proposed for Põlva town.

• The calculation indicates that to cover the increased biofuel

consumption in addition to present consumption 76 515 m3s of wood

chips are needed and 75 000 ha of abandoned agricultural lands should

be cultivated to produce 150 000 tons of silage.

• The potential of wood chips from harvesting residues is 88,9 thousand

m3s and from traces of electric power lines up to 4,1 thousand m3s. The

total yield can be up to 93 thousand m3s which covers the needs of the

Põlva co-generation plant.

Location of co-generation plants in Põlva county according to the

scenarios

Põlva

Abissaare

Ahja

Ihamaru

Räpina

Peri

Värska

Vastse-Kuuste

Biogaasijaam: Abissaare 1,0 MW Ahja 1,0 MW Ihamaru 0,5 MW Peri 0,5 MW Räpina 3,0 MW Vastse-Kuuste 0,5 MW Värska 1,0 MW

Põlva koostootmisjaam 3,5 MW

General conclusion:

Põlva county can be a self-supply region from the point of view of production of electrical energy