Abstract

Perennial Short Rotation Woody Crops ("SRC" or "Short Rotation Coppice") are woody species such as willow, poplar, robinia and others. Their cultivation is a good alternative to annual energy crops and can be complementary to existing agricultural systems. Aside from being harvested for energy production, the cultivation of SRCs has many potential benefits compared to annual crops. For instance, they may help to improve water quality, enhance biodiversity, provide ecosystem services (hunting, beekeeping, water supply, fire protection), mitigate animal diseases between farms, prevent erosion, reduce artificial input materials (fertilizers, pesticides) and mitigate climate change due to carbon storage. These advantages have to be promoted to produce sustainable woodchips from SRC, enhancing the positive impacts of SRC to the environment. Thereby, the following sustainability aspects must be considered: SRC has most positive impacts on marginal land and especially as structural elements in the landscape, bordering for instance fields, roads, and electricity lines. The sustainability of the supply chains is specifically addressed in the project SRCplus. The SRCplus project contributes to remove the non-technological barriers of SRC development in Europe through the support of implementing local SRC supply chains. Thereby, synergies with other agricultural uses, ecosystem services and nature conservation measures are exploited. This paper presents first results of the SRCplus project, and discusses sustainability aspects of SRC.

Keywords

Short rotation coppice; SRC; knowledge transfer; heating; sustainability

Published in

European Biomass Conference and Exhibition Proceedings
2016, pages: 264-269
Title: Proceedings 24th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition
ISBN: 978-88-89407-165
Publisher: ETA-Florence Renewable Energies

Conference

24th International European Biomass Conference on Setting the Course for a Biobased Economy, JUN 06-09, 2016, Amsterdam, NETHERLANDS

SLU Authors

• Dimitriou, Ioannis

  • Department of Crop Production Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

UKÄ Subject classification

Bioenergy


Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/117837