Saturday, September 15, 2007

Giant energy plants to transform UK countryside

The British countryside will be transformed through the planting of tall energy crops, the BA Festival of Science in York heard yesterday. Fields planted with miscanthus (or elephant) grass, 3-4 metres high, will look like Caribbean sugar-cane plantations.

The Rural and Economy Land Use programme (RELU) estimates that 15-20 per cent of Britain's agricultural land may have to be devoted to growing biofuels to meet international obligations to reduce carbon emissions and improve energy security. [The writer is a grant holder in the RELU programme].

The two main candidate crops are willow coppice, harvested every three years, and miscanthus, a fast-growing Asian grass harvested annually in late winter or spring. Farmers would grow those on poor quality arable land, said Anglea Karp of Rothamsted Research, RELU energy crops coordinator. 'The impact on agricultural land and food production is a big concern,' she said. 'Because the energy crops recycle their own nutrients and do not need fertilisers, they will not need to be planted on the best agricultural land.'

RELU has attempted to assess the public acceptability of a landscape dominated by giant energy crops. They conducted a survey using photographs of existing miscanthus and willow plantations. Surprisingly, two-thirds said they would not mind the triffids growing within sight of their home, although this figure fell when participants were told that more local power stations would be needed to produce energy from their crops.

Environmental surveys are particularly suspect because people feel a need to give the 'correct' green answer. When it comes to behaviour, NIMBY attitudes come to the surface.

Nevertheless, RELU supremo Philip Lowe seized the occasion to urge the government to 'take a more strategic approach to land use in rural areas.' The well connected Newcastle University professor said the government needed a strategic vision for balancing the growing pressures on home-grown food supplies with the need to grow energy crops.

The good professor turned words into action when he bought bananas as a healthy energy boost for the participants waiting for my panel at York.

4 comments:

Joshua Beaumont said...

Thanks for that, It has been very helpful with my Geography homework.

Anonymous said...

Dear Sir,
at last at miscanthus, the question come into ones mind: Why isn't there much more of that plant being planted all over Europe as at last Germany & Autria has had over 15 years quite heavy support schemes in place to support new plants?
I think the answer is twofold: 1) miscanthus is simply not profitable compared to maize for farmers.
2) Also nobody likes to mention that: fossil fuels reserves are increasing as at the moment current oil prices makes it much more profitable to explore catchier to exploit reserves
Yours sincerely
H.

Wyn Grant said...

I would agree that the economics of biofuels are very questionable, as the recent OECD report has argued.

Anonymous said...

ear Sir,
not only the economics, but also the environmental impacts are far from being analysed suffiently. Not even to mention that the energy balances are quite controversial ranging from (input:output) 0.9 to 6.
Not a good prospect for the overall economy, but with the current support systems a very profitable future for farmers.
yours sincerely
H.