Biomass gets £66m boost

The Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has also allocated 29 million over the next six years to encourage farmers to grow energy crops such as miscanthus (elephant grass).

Making the announcement at a renewable energy conference in Edinburgh, Brian Wilson, the energy minister, said the money will support the establishment of up to six power stations to produce electricity from burning fast-growing crops such as straw, and up to a hundred smaller power and heat plants.

The minister said that rural communities would gain jobs and that biomass development would help farmers’ incomes.

Renewable energy from a range of sources, he said, contributed to security, sustainability and diversity.

Aberdeen Grain, the Whiterashes-based farmers’ co-operative, is one of a number of organisations which has persevered with renewable green energy without much encouragement until now.

Committed to assessing all possible alternatives to conventional crops for its members as grain prices have fallen steadily, the co-op has been carrying out short rotation coppice trials for three years. Some stands will be ready to harvest this winter and board members are keen to follow successful field trials by establishing a district heating, and possibly power generation, unit in the north east.

The co-op also intends to look at possible savings by using a wood-fuelled system to pre-heat air going into its grain driers. It uses about 350,000 litres of gas oil annually to dry grain and its price doubled in a year to a total of more than 60,000 for 2001.

As well as proving successful as potential fuel crops, short rotation coppices are proving beneficial to wildlife.

Grass headlands have been established as beetle banks and, because the ground suffers little disturbance from year to year, there has been a big increase in wildlife, particularly partridges.