Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

PELDEX is a long term project with the goal to create an index on global scale for prices and storage volumes of pellets. Its aim is to increase the transparency in the bioenergy market. The aim of the current thesis was to evaluate different ways to collect price information from pellet producers. For that a database of global pellet producers was updated and used. Information was obtained by two methods: Sending online questionnaires and checking company websites. To evaluate and verify the obtained results and as an additional source of information, national indices and price series already available were also collected and compiled.
As the response frequency of the price questionnaire was relatively low it was concluded that questionnaire design and timing of questionnaire submissions could be further developed as well as other ways to strengthen the links between the investigators and the respondents. By weighting the compiled pellet price statistics a global pellet price index was nevertheless constructed. The gathered statistics also indicated some other interesting results, e.g. that the price developments of the Swedish and North American markets differed from other markets, and the similarities of the central European price curves.