Since 2002, the Wales Biomass Centre has widened its area of energy crop research to include grass as well as woody crops. This has been achieved through two main projects; firstly a DTI contract to explore the ecological impacts of energy grasses at sites in Herefordshire and secondly, the ACRE (Alternative Crops for Renewable Energy) project funded by European Objective 1 and supported by the WDA.

“The Environmental Impacts of Micanthus and Reed Canary grass Plantations” has been investigated throughout a 3 year DTI funded project by Dr Tzehaye Semere. The main results from this trial are discussed in the “Environment” section of this website, for more detailed information copies of the first and second reports are available from the DTI and the work is due to be published this year.

The Alternative Crops for Renewable Energy (ACRE) project has been running since 2003 and is due to finish in March 2006. The project is funded through European Objective 1 structural funds with support from the WDA. Cardiff University are the project leaders with ADAS Wales (Pwllpeiran Research Farm) and the National Botanic Garden of Wales as partners. The main objectives of the project were to trial and demonstrate a range of energy crops including many new crops to the UK and new varieties at a range of sites across Wales and to investigate their horticultural requirements, yield capacities, market potentials and overall suitability as an energy crop for Wales. The results and research undertaken for this project are still being collected and collated. The field trials, at sites in Pembrokeshire, Carmarthenshire and Cardiganshire are open to visitors by appointment.

Building upon the Centres expertise in short rotation willow coppice, we currently have two projects on willow crops. The first being part of the Institute for Grassland and Environmental Research (IGER) Objective 1 Helgy i Gymru or Willow for Wales project and the second being a GLASU (Leader+) funded project investigating the potential of willow for basketry and crafts in Powys (Willows in Powys).

As part of the Helyg I Gymru project, Danielle Fry is investigating the ecological impacts of a commercial scale willow plots at sites across Wales the initial results of which are summarised in the Environment section of the website. Results on the yields, economics and other parameters measured for this project are available through IGER.

The Willows in Powys project has been running since 2002 and is currently in the 2nd development stage. In the first stage a wide range of basketry and ornamental willows were planted and monitored for establishment success and initial growth rates, running in parallel willow training courses and event were arranged. Continuing with the success of this project, the second stage, which we are currently half way through is monitoring the yields and growth rates of the willows and their suitability for craft and basketry purposes. Again there is a parallel part to this project investigating potential markets, providing advanced training for willow makers and promoting Willow in Powys through events and open days.

The Wales Biomass Centre has considerable experience in the use of willow of bio-engineering applications, in particular biofiltration. This is discussed in more detail in the Bio-Engineering section of this website.