Abstract
This paper investigates the spatial heterogeneity of landowners’ willingness to supply three bioenergy crops: switchgrass, miscanthus, and willow in the Northeastern United States. Spatial heterogeneity might arise for several reasons – (i) landowners closer to bioenergy processing plants might be more likely to be willing to supply bioenergy crops, (ii) landowners who are more willing to supply bioenergy crops may be spatially clustered because they share similar land attributes, demographics, experiences, and/or values. Using high-resolution GIS data related to the location of pellet plants utilizing bioenergy crops and survey data related to landowners’ characteristics including spatial location, we estimate a spatial probit model to explain the variation in individual-specific willingness to accept (WTA) values to grow bioenergy crops. We find that respondents’ WTA is lower the closer they live to their nearest pellet plant and spatial dependency is only present for switchgrass supply. We also identify three cold spots for each bioenergy crop by considering WTA and technical potential supply. We believe that bioenergy supply chain could be developed around these cold spots.
