A new website has been launched to advise farmers on the opportunities for growing crops for energy and using farm residues in anaerobic digestion.
The PowerPlants2020 website provides free, up-to-date and independent advice on bioenergy, including energy crop agronomy, how to apply for grants and cost calculators.
Run by the NNFCC (National Non-Food Crops Centre), the site will be regularly updated. Coming soon will be a list of boilers which are suitable to burn SRC willow and Miscanthus, and a list of energy crop buyers, including contract arrangements, such as minimum/maximum volumes, pricing, contract length, haulage arrangements and fuel specifications.
Lucy Hopwood, Land and Agriculture Manager for the NNFCC, says “Farmers are flocking to bioenergy following the introduction of government subsidies for small-scale producers. In response to volatile and currently low commodity prices, farmers are being forced to consider alternatives and bioenergy could be the answer.”
“Bioenergy offers longer-term solutions rather than immediate change. For those considering growing energy crops or developing anaerobic digestion there is no better place to start than PowerPlants2020.”
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