The Potential Supply of Biomass for Energy from Hardwood Plantations in the Sunshine Coast Council Region of South-East Queensland, Australia

Small community-based biomass energy systems sourcing feedstocks from local small-scale forests are common in the northern hemisphere but are few in Australia. Fine-grained analyses of feedstock availability are an important precursor to increased investment in these systems in Australia. This study presents estimates of the potential biomass for energy supply from hardwood plantations within the Sunshine Coast Council region of southeast Queensland. The region’s 1,120 ha of private farm forestry, corporate-owned and joint venture hardwood plantations are predominantly small-scale (