Nedaudz informācijas par patreizējo stāvokli Lielbritānijā saistībā ar energokultūru ierīkošanas atbalsta mehānismu nākotni

"Aimed at farmers who may be looking for new ideas, as well as at educating the general public, the idea for the area came from Robin Twizell. He is keen to use the opportunity to expel some of the myths surrounding energy crops.
“There are many alternative crops that end users – including the general public – should be looking at as sustainable energy sources, and farmers also need to be aware of all the possible energy markets that are available to them, which is not just the market for road transport fuels,” said Mr Twizell, who manages the North East Renewable Energy Producers group in Teeside, which is just one of the organisations exhibiting in the new area.
A producer group for growers of short rotation coppice, based near Middlesbrough, NEREP currently has six members producing 200 hectares of coppice for the 30 megawatt Wilton Ten power station on Teeside.
Having been converted from a coal-burning plant, for the past three weeks it has been burning wood and is now taking in short rotation coppice, trees, recycled wood and forest co-products.
“Our target is to have 3,000 hectares of coppice in the ground in the area and we are actively looking for growers within a 50-mile radius of Wilton,” added Mr Twizell.
“The advantage of coppice over cereals is that it’s only established once every 20 years, so you do not have the input costs associated with normal arable crop production.”
Planted using specialist planters, 20cm cuttings are inserted into a prepared seedbed in the spring, with only general post-emergence weed control required within five days of planting.
The crop is then cut back after year one to encourage coppicing and then harvested every two to three years after that using a conventional forage harvester with a modified header.
“The forage harvester ‘chips’ the crop and it is left in the field in heaps to naturally die down to approximately 25 to 30 per cent moisture before being delivered to the power station.”
Growing around 10 oven-dried tonnes per hectare per year, growers receive around £20 to £25 per oven-dried tonne of wood produced, depending on how far they farm from the power plant, with growers producing the coppice on a 10-year contract with Wilton Ten.
The crop is also eligible for an establishment grant under the Energy Crops Scheme.
“The grant was £1,000/ hectare, but that scheme has now come to an end and is under review by the Government, so we are currently eagerly awaiting a new replacement scheme to be introduced,” said Mr Twizell, adding that the delay of the new scheme’s introduction was proving demoralising for the industry.
“There is a real place in the UK for this type of crop because of its significantly higher energy balance compared to cereals and at the summer shows such as the Great Yorkshire we want face to face contact with farmers to talk about crops such as coppice so they are not just dismissed.
“They are potentially a serious business and should be considered as part of a farmer’s cropping scheme.”
He added that the Wilton Ten power station had commanded an investment of £60 million, while around £90 million had gone into a plant at Lockerbie.
“That’s two purpose-built biomass power stations that just want to use wood, and on top of that there is also demand from the coal fired power stations such as Drax in North Yorkshire who want to use wood for co-firing along with coal, so there is plenty of demand for renewable energy.”
Along with land-based crops, the new area at the show will focus on all aspects of renewable energy including ground source heat pumps, transport fuels and solar and wind power, which all go towards reducing the carbon footprint.
“Farmers could look at solar energy or at installing their own biomass plants or ground source heat pumps on farms to generate their own heat to reduce energy bills,” said Mr Twizell.
“To set up a ground source heat pump for instance, all that is required is to lay a relatively small area of pipes around one to two metres under the ground surface where soils are constantly around 12degC and then to pump water through the system.”
A heat pump is used to accumulate the temperature rise between when the water enters and exits the system.
“Dairy farmers wanting to increase the water temperature for washing out a parlour, for example, could use a ground source heat pump to help heat water and reduce energy costs,” he said."

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