The Green Energy Growers' Association (Gega), a new national group, is to establish a network of projects enabling growers and forest owners to develop and deliver biomass and biofuels to industry and consumers.
Ann Kehoe, one of Ireland's best-known farmers, said yesterday that a further objective of the new non-profit-making body was to provide a system that allowed green energy producers to secure the legal process for trading their carbon credit assets.
"In addition to the enormous earning opportunities of energy crops, growers will also be able to register their carbon credits, which we believe will be tradeable. This will greatly enhance the income from energy crop growing," she said. "People who are already growing energy crops may be unaware that they are entitled to their carbon credits.
"We have developed a process which will enable carbon credits to be linked to renewables and increase the trading opportunities across the whole sector."
The organisation can be contacted at www.gega.ie