Elephant grass – one for future?


16 March 2000



Elephant grass – one for future?


ELEPHANT grass could become a familiar sight in the countryside within a decade as Britain turns to alternative energy crops to provide 10% of its energy.

The government wants renewable fuels such as poplar, willow and grasses to be used in power stations to provide alternatives to fossil fuels.

Researchers as ADAS Arthur Rickwood, Ely, have been working with three types of grass; elephant grass, switch grass and reed canary grass and produce results on Thursday (16 March).

Elephant grass was found to offer high yields and low moisture content, could be cultivated in ways familiar to farmers and could be harvested annually — giving continuity of supply.

The UKs largest straw-burning power station is to take approximately 200,000 tonnes of predominantly straw residues to produce 36 megawatts of electricity annually.

This is the first major power station which will feed electricity from this source into the national grid, reports the Radio 4 Farming Today programme.

The team feel the grasses are still experimental and more work must be done before farmers should consider growing the crops on a large scale.

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