Crops for Energy is one of 20 partners from six countries involved in a major European Union project called ROKWOOD: European regions fostering innovation for sustainable production and efficient use of woody biomass. This will focus on how to improve the market conditions for the increased uptake of woody energy crops grown in short […]
Crops for Energy has produced the first holistic study looking at potential contribution of woody energy crops to south west regional renewable energy targets
The Energy Crops Scheme administered by Natural England will close to applications on the 31st August 2013. As long as an application is approved before the end of December 2013 planting can take place in the spring of 2014 or 2015. Payments under the scheme cover 50% of the costs of establishing miscanthus or short […]
A recent scientific article suggests that growing fast growing woody energy crops such as willow, poplar and eucalyptus could lead to increased human mortality and reduce crop yields. See: Impacts of biofuel cultivation on mortality and crop yields Apparently, large areas of fast growing tree crops could produce substantial emissions of isoprene which reacts in […]
In this blog we address the possible implications of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reform process on the woody energy crops industry. Our response is based on the outcome of the latest vote of the Agriculture and Rural Development Committee at the European Parliament on 23/01/2013. RURAL DEVELOPMENT REGULATION ARTICLE 18: Investment in Physical […]
Crops for Energy is delighted to be involved with a consortium looking at innovative ways to deal with biomass produced from wetlands management. The project is supported by the the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC’s ) £2 million wetlands biomass to bioenergy competition and aims is to provide an end to end process […]
Farmers in the south west of England are eligible for free and discounted consultancy through the Resource Efficiency for Farms (R4F) scheme delivered by Rural Focus. This is an amazing opportunity and we at Crops for Energy are constantly amazed by how few farmers know about the service. This support package involves a FREE visit […]
So you’ve got the biomass boiler installed and you’re starting to enjoy guilt free/low cost renewable heat. All that’s left to do is to get the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) accreditation from Ofgem and wait for the cheques to start rolling in. However, on downloading or printing out the 225 pages of RHI guidance documents […]
By working in the energy crops sector we are all the time coming up against the food versus fuel argument. People will say – “Shouldn’t we be growing food rather than planting crops to burn?” My argument is that we need to get the best possible return from our meagre land resources. We should be […]
This is our response to the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) consultation on the anticipated Domestic Renewable Heat Incentive and Phase 2 of the non-domestic RHI. All our points involve possible implications of the consultation on biomass heating systems and in particular focus on the self supply of energy crops (e.g. willow and […]