Standard content for Members only
To continue reading this article, please login to your Utility Week account, Start 14 day trial or Become a member.
If your organisation already has a corporate membership and you haven’t activated it simply follow the register link below. Check here.
The UK could meet more than two fifths of its energy demand from home-grown biomass according to a recent study.
Researchers at the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research at the University of Manchester calculated that a mix of purpose growing crops, waste and residues from industry, forestry and agriculture could provide 44 per cent of the UK’s energy requirements by 2050, without biomass imports.
The researchers said biomass need not compromise domestic food production. “The UK could produce large levels of energy from biomass without importing resources or negatively impacting the UK’s ability to feed itself,” said author of the report Andrew Welfle.
According to the report, between 19 and 44 percent of the U.K.’s primary energy demand could be delivered from indigenous biomass. At the maximum contribution the study found that indigenous crops could meet 22 per cent of demand with another 15.4 per cent coming from waste. The remaining 6.5 per cent could come from the “continuous and robust resource option for the UK bioenergy sector” of farming, forestry and industrial residues.
According to Welfle agricultural residues including slurry and straw were the “highlight opportunities for the bioenergy sector due to their high abundance and current underutilisation”.
Please login or Register to leave a comment.