Issue link: https://htpgraphics.uberflip.com/i/464860
23 AGRICULTURE EDITION TERRAVESTA | The key challenge – confidence Perennial energy crops are a 10-year plus plan for growers, and conversion to biomass is probably an even longer commitment for end users. Growers, end users and their finance sources all require the confidence of long-term policy to ensure that their schemes will be able to fulfill their business plan. In this respect, consistency of government policy carries a higher value than grants. While grant offers can be long term (that for the Renewable Heat Incentive is 20 years), the schemes under which they are available tend to be short term, begging the inevitable question of security of policy when the grant runs out (as evidenced by the style of withdrawal of the first Energy Crops Scheme, and the subsequent failure of the second Energy Crops Scheme). Using 6 mm pellets for large-scale power generation as the volume base, Terravesta's supply-chain model offers heat from Miscanthus at a price that is competitive with wood biomass and cheaper than electricity, air-source heat pumps, oil, liquid petroleum gas or house coal, with almost the same convenience and automation as oil, and without the need for grant support at any stage. The crop dries naturally in the field, avoiding the need to use energy for drying as part of the pelleting process. Looking ahead The UK, through IBERS at Aberystwyth University, leads the world in Miscanthus plant breeding, and through scientific/ commercial partnerships seed-based hybrids are very close to commercial roll-out. This will enable much more rapid crop deployment than the current technology of planting rhizomes, as well as the starting of a breeding programme to promote specific traits appropriate to existing and future (second generation) end-use technologies and to improve yields and further reduce establishment cost. Delivering a secure long-term return versus the volatility of other enterprises, this crop could find a place on most lowland farms, arable or grassland. With a matching uptake in end-use technology, this could turn a UK-grown, UK-used model into a more regional, locally grown, locally used biomass energy opportunity. 350,000 ha? An impossible target turning into a deliverable vision. 6 mm pellets offer almost the same convenience and automation as oil g CO 2 eq C per MJ Miscanthus 0.7 Short-rotation coppice (SRC) willow 0.83 Short-rotation forestry (SRF) poplar 0.77 Wood – eastern USA 3.18 Wood – western USA 4.58 North Sea gas 16 North Sea oil 22 UK coal 33 » G R E E N H O U S E G A S E M I S S I O N S O F B O I L E R F U E L 'Ecodomes' for storing biomass at Drax power station Miscanthus produces consistent annual yields for low annual cost " "