Electricity production from lignocellulose, as well as retrieval of intermediate lignocellulose-derived bioenergy products can be performed at small-, medium — or large-scales, but smaller scales are invariably more costly. Production costs of combustion, gasification and fast pyrolysis technologies have been compared for biomass-derived electricity production in the range of 1-20 MW (Bridgwater et al. 2002). Although the costs of technologies differed significantly at small scales, pro­duction costs between technologies converged at larger scales. The abovementioned study recommended the use of pyrolysis bio-oil in diesel engines and gas turbines for direct production of electricity at small scales, although further development is required to address the corrosive effects of bio-oil on equipment. Community — level projects for the production of electricity from community-managed forests were investigated for the state of Madhya Pradesh, India (Dwivedi and Alavalapati 2008). Gasification technology was preferred for this application, and showed a five-fold reduction in electricity production costs from 5 to 100 MWe. The average cost of electricity at the consumer level produced using the largest capacity 100 kW gasifier was $0.15/kWh, which was greater than the $0.08/kWh price of electricity supplied from the grid. The study demonstrated significant differences in the hectare requirements for different types of biomass, based not only on the projected annual biomass increment per hectare, but also on the calorific value (energy content) of the various types of biomass (see Chap. 8). Such changes in biomass yields will also affect the environmental impact of bioenergy supply chains (see Chap. 11). Large-scale electricity production from forests showed an economic optimum in the range of 450-3,150 MW, indicating that a wide range of scales can be considered, rather than only a minimum production scale (Kumar et al. 2003). A similar plateau-effect in the capital investment for electricity production has been observed, showing increased costs at smaller scales (Uslu 2005; Uslu et al. 2008; Bridgwater et al. 2002). Although a minimum cost of electricity production can be achieved by increasing production scale, economic benefits should be balanced against increased biomass feedstock demand, which may increase production costs, as will be considered in the section below. As a result of limitations in biomass supply, a smaller scale of electricity production may need to be employed in certain instances. For large-scale biomass co-firing in coal-fired power plants, a location near a large deep-water harbour to the facilitate shipping of large quantities of feedstocks and bioenergy products is an important advantage for economic competitiveness (IEA ETSAP 2010).