The current costs of providing biomass in Europe vary greatly depending on the biomass and range from €21 to €180 per tonne of dry matter (DENA, 2006). The variation is due to the different energy and moisture content as well as the origin of the feedstocks. Wood chips are at the upper end of the price range while waste wood and agricultural residues are at the lower end; the average feedstock costs are < €60 per tonne of dry matter. These costs include feedstock storage close to the field or forest (10 km) but not the transport costs to the processing plant. The delivery costs increase with the moisture content and transportation distance.

Table 3.5 shows a breakdown of the total costs of the feedstock for the example of switchgrass in the US (US EPA, 2009). As shown, just over half of the costs

(57%) are related to the cultivation of the feedstock and the rest are due to the storage and delivery to the ethanol plant. These costs compare well with forest residue costs (US EPA, 2009).