Proceedings World Bioenergy 2010

Vyshnyuvate,
(Rozivka,
Zaporizzhya)
Polkovnyche,
(Stavyshche,
Kyiv)
Zlatoustivka,
(Volnovakha,
Donetsk)
Drozdy (Bila
Tserkva, Kyiv)
Dyagova (Mena,
Chernihiv)
100 world bioenergy 2010
150 or
350
(project)
and kindergarten
Heat for local
secondary school
and (possibly) to
local municipality
600 Heat for trading
company and agroenterprise
“ROPA
Ukraine”
600 DH to municipal
buildings in the
village
980 and
150
DH to municipal
buildings in the
village; for pigbreeding
facility on
the farm
250 Heat for a grain
dryer on the farm
Project
coordinator
Director of the
agro-enterprise
Director of agroenterprise
Deputy director
of the agro-
enterprise
A farmer and a
boiler operator
3.2 Data collection
This work involved both “desktop” and field research.
Field studies were carried out in June 2009 – February
2010, and involved 14 in-depth interviews with key actors
within an agro-biomass production chain (Table I). Six
interviews were conducted face-to-face and eight - over the
telephone. This study also involved site visits to two grain
producing farms with straw-fired installations, straw
storages, baling equipment, premises with heating needs,
etc.
Interviews sought to reveal the main components of a
conceptual framework to this study and answer the key
overarching area of query framed as follows:
“How did actors collect and combine the necessary
resources in a new straw based business?”
Table II: Coverage topics for case studies
Coverage topic Comment
Installation capacity One or two examples are examined in-depth for
each straw-fired boiler capacity that is available
in UA at present
Purpose of
installation
Cases examined represent different ways of
energy end-use (e.g. grain drying, local heating
of industrial premises, DH of municipal
buildings and dwelling houses)
Boiler ownership Straw-fired boilers examined are owned by
various actors i.e. agricultural enterprises,
companies and municipalities
Boiler manufacturer Initiatives described involve installations
developed
producers
and manufactured by various
Degree of the
installation success
Not only successful examples are included but
also those facing constraints in their
establishment or operation
3.3 Conceptual framework
Conceptual framework was developed by the authors
in previous work [11,12]. It is based on theoretical
considerations from neoinstitutional theory and studies
on the legitimisation of new ventures 45,4,46,47,
diffusion models that describe the variables critical to the
rate of adoption of new ventures 4,7-9, studies on
Technological Innovation Systems (TISs) 4,5,7-9, and
work explaining the behaviour of actors 48-50.
Four main categories in the conceptual framework
include: 1) actors and their networks, 2) natural
resources, 3) “hard” (technical) components, and
4) “soft” (non-technical) components. They build the
core of an ‘agro-biomass framework for organisation and
action’. The frameworks are grouped according to the
empirical examples of straw use for energy identified in
UA (Section 4-1). These in turn are classified according
to a number of industrial development stages suggested
by Aldrich and Fiol [45] (Table IV).
4 RESULTS AND ANALYSIS
4.1 Agro-biomass frameworks for organisation and
action
Three distinct ABF types (Table III) were found in this
study including:
ABF 1: Small scale local heat production
ABF 2: Small scale local straw production for fuel sale
to municipality
ABF 3: Medium scale conversion and DH
Four principal categories, which were found
important to group the variables describing each ABF
type, include ‘general parameters’, ‘boiler
characteristics’, ‘straw supply chain’ variables, and
‘economy and reasons for transformation’.
Aldrich and Fiol [45] identify four stages in the
industry development (levels of analysis) – organisational,
intraindustrial, interindustrial, and institutional. Ukrainian
ABF types are analysed along these stages (Table IV).
Discussion on comparison of Ukrainian and Western
European realities [11,12] is presented in the Sub-sections
4.2-4.4, 5.2.
In comparison to WE two framework types are absent
in UA namely ‘medium scale local heat provision with
excess for sale’ and ‘large scale power or CHP generation’
[11,12]. Instead an additional ABF type is identified in UA
– ‘small scale local straw production with fuel sale to
municipality’.
Organisations in case studies within this research
include agricultural enterprises, village councils, village
schools, funding bodies, bioenergy and renewable energy
consultancies, local authorities, boiler manufacturers, etc.
4.2 ABF 1: Small scale local straw production for local
use for heat
ABF 1 is represented with a privately owned small
scale straw-fired installation (a water-based boiler or an
air-based heat generator) located on a grain producing
agricultural enterprise that also yields significant amounts
of crop residues and has substantial heating needs.
In all cases [51,52,60,64] the land is rented from
private users (long-term leasing) since in UA land sale is
prohibited by law. Most of the enterprises are not only
involved in agricultural activities on the farm but also deal
with industrial production and trading/service provision.
Table III. Types of empirical agro-biomass frameworks
for organisation and action in Ukraine
Case study Strutynka (Sn),
Lebedyn (L),
Polkovnyche (P),
Dyagova (Dg)
Farm size 800-2000 ha
16 000 ha (L)
ABF 1 ABF 2 ABF 3
I GENERAL PARAMETERS
Olgopil (O),
Stavy (St),
Vyshnyuvate (V)
Zlatoustivka (Z),
Drozdy (D)
6000 ha (O) 10 000 ha (Z)
3250 ha (D)
Energy type Heat Heat Heat
Energy end
use
Heat network
ownership
Enterprise
(premises,
facilities) or farm
(e.g. a grain
dryer) heating
Heating of a
village school/
kindergarten
Heating of
village municipal
buildings on a
DH grid
Private Municipal Municipal