Economic and Policy Factors Driving the Adoption of Institutional Woody Biomass Heating Systems in the United States

........................................................................................................................................................ ii Acknowledgments ........................................................................................................................................ iii List of Tables ................................................................................................................................................. v List of Figures ................................................................................................................................................ v Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 1 Literature review ........................................................................................................................................... 4 A Brief History of Biomass Use in the U.S. ................................................................................................ 4 European Influences on U.S. Markets ....................................................................................................... 5 Policy Influence on Energy and Commercial Sector Use of Biomass in the U.S. ...................................... 6 Forest Management and Solid Biomass Fuels .......................................................................................... 9 The Current State of Institutional Utilization .......................................................................................... 13 Barriers and Limiting Factors to Biomass Use ......................................................................................... 14 Theoretical Framework of Industry Location .............................................................................................. 15 The Purpose of this Study ........................................................................................................................... 18 Methods and Data ...................................................................................................................................... 19 Methods .................................................................................................................................................. 19 Data ......................................................................................................................................................... 21 Model Diagnostics ....................................................................................................................................... 26 Results ......................................................................................................................................................... 27 Model 1 ................................................................................................................................................... 28 Model 2 – Model Extension .................................................................................................................... 32 Model 3 – Model Extension .................................................................................................................... 33 Model Comparison and Expansion Map ................................................................................................. 34 Discussion.................................................................................................................................................... 35 Conclusions ................................................................................................................................................. 38 Appendix A: Current users of decentralized biomass heat ......................................................................... 63 Appendix B: Marginal effects ...................................................................................................................... 66 Appendix C: Likely adopting counties ......................................................................................................... 72 Appendix D: Spatial structure ..................................................................................................................... 73 Work Cited .................................................................................................................................................. 79