Irish farmers growing energy crops will have major opportunities available to them, the top Irish scientist in this area told the Teagasc National Tillage conference in Carlow yesterday.
Dr Bernard Rice, who has been investigating energy crops for over 20 years, said fuel crops from rapeseed oil were limited because they have to be grown in rotation and that would limit the amount we could produce.
However, he told the 300 farmers at the conference that, as oil becomes more expensive, opportunities would exist for the production of vegetable oils for fuel and biomass crops for heating, such as willow, maize and elephant grass.
Much, he said, would depend on Government excise on these alternative fuels, but there was a changing attitude in Government with the recent reduction of road excise duty on liquid biofuels from approved projects.
He told the conference that a call would soon be made inviting interested parties to make proposals for the production of these de-excised biofuels, mainly bio-diesel and ethanol.
Many opportunities already existed in the disposal of organic waste, which, he said, farmers could use on fuel crops.
"Local authorities are coming under enormous pressure on organic-waste disposal because they are not allowed to use it in landfill and the digester proposals are slow in coming on," he said.
"There are a number of sites in the country where willow is being used as a method of sewage control. I think there will be a growth in this area in the future because not only will the willow act as a septic tank but they can also be pelleted and burned."
Dr Rice said he would like to see crop fuels becoming a premium product and felt they should be used for heating purposes rather than as fuel for vehicles.
"I do not think it should be used to heat homes, but for public buildings and for hotels and business establishments. Alternative fuel-heating systems are already in use in the Inchydoney Hotel in Cork and in Kellys Hotel in Rosslare, two of the top hotels in the country," he said.
The tillage conference also heard that the shutdown of the Irish sugar beet industry has not deterred a quarter of the growers from planting sugar and fodder beet crops this year.
This, the first major meeting of cereal growers since Greencore announced the closure of the industry next May, also heard that if €20 million to €25 million were spent on the Carlow plant, it could be converted to produce ethanol.
Teagasc tillage specialist Michael Hennessy told farmers seeking information on what alternative crops to plant that they should not convert their beet tillage areas to growing spring barley.
"If you all plant spring barley now, you will flood the market and the price will drop for all. Land coming out of sugar beet should be planted to crops such as maize, oilseed rape, peas [ and] beans, oats and grass," he said.
Mr Hennessy said he had conducted a straw poll of sugar beet growers and found that despite the shutdown of the industry, 25 per cent of those polled would still be growing either sugar beet or fodder beet this year.
His colleague, Dr Rice, thought the former Carlow Sugar beet factory could be converted to produce ethanol for fuel, for an investment of between €20 million to €25 million.