**5. Conclusion**

During the past decades, the concerns of the depletion of fossil fuels and global warming caused by excess GHG emissions have become the most important driving force for the development and utilization of renewable energy resources. The successful experiences from the EU-28 have proved that bioenergy production from biomass and biodegradable waste is the most reliable and promising solution in today's renewable energy market. This chapter studies bioenergy production from the perspective of value chain analysis. The method of value chain analysis has been developed for over three decades and extensively applied in analysing the value-added process of many different industries. In this chapter, a theoretical architecture for value chain analysis of bioenergy production from biomass and biodegradable waste is first formulated for streamlining the value-added activities in the bioenergy production network. In order to give a deep insight of the developed value chain model, we investigated the current situation of bioenergy production in Norway and compared that with other Nordic countries. The feasibility study for establishing a bioenergy production plant in Nordland County, which is located in the northern part of Norway, is also performed.

The value chain analysis of bioenergy production from biomass and biodegradable waste in Nordland County estimates both the potential amount of bioenergy output and the environmental impact, and suggestions for overcoming the challenges of bioenergy production are also given in this section. In order to better achieve the value-added process in bioenergy production in Nordland County, future studies are suggested from three aspects. First, information from other local industries should be investigated so that a complete value chain of bioenergy production can be formulated. Second, forestry residues are very important feedstock for bioenergy production in other places; however, it is not included in current plan for bioenergy production. Thus, further studies with inclusion of forestry waste as the feedstock of the MBT plant at Leknes should be carried out. Third, decision support tools for optimal design of integrated network for biodegradable waste transportation should be developed in order to balance both transportation costs and GHG emissions in an optimal manner.
