Abstract :
This paper summarises work on the assessment of the agro-industrial and economic factors affecting energy crops in South West England. There were five phases to the project:
• Resource assessment
• Powerplant economics
• Agro-economic factors
• Resource exploitation
• Social and environmental factors
which investigated two types of energy crops suitable for the region, short rotation coppice (SRC) and Miscanthus. The maximum estimated resource for SRC was 2.8 Mdte/y. The corresponding figure for Miscanthus was 4.5 Mdte/y. This resource was thought capable of supporting between 7 to 26 powerplants with a total capacity of 27.5-114.0 MW depending on the type of crop and its uptake. At generating prices of 7.5 p/kWh (Boilers + turbogenerators) and 8.5 p/kwh (gasifiers + spark ignition engines) powerplant operators could make acceptable internal rates of return with fuel prices of around £25.00-£27.50/dte at the farm gate. Under current agro-economic scenarios, both SRC and Miscanthus were not economically viable crops for farmers at a farm gate price of £27.50/dte. The resource is therefore not exploitable at present. Under a future agro-economic scenario where agronomy costs have been significantly reduced and yields increased, SRC would be economically viable only on set-a-side land at £27.50/dte. Whereas Miscanthus would be viable on set-a-side land at £25.00/dte and on non set-a-side land at £27.50/dte. Finally the cost effectiveness of energy crops as a CO2 abatement agent are examined and found to be a poor second to wind energy for South West England.
