willow as a source of energy

azezil

http://www.esf.edu/pubprog/brochure/willow/willow.htm

Concern about global warming and desire to reduce dependency on imported energy have spurred interest in renewable energy resources. ESF scientists in Syracuse, New York are developing a system for growing willows as an agricultural crop in dedicated energy plantations. Willows are harvested once every three years and resprout after cutting, eliminating annual planting and pesticide applications necessary for growing traditional agricultural crops. Willow trees grown in energy plantations are ten times more efficient at sequestering carbon dioxide than trees grown in native forests, and production per acre exceeds that of traditional crops. Energy plantations could improve economies of farm communities by providing an alternative crop, and provide a clean, versatile, renewable energy source. Commercial energy plantations established in Sweden during the mid 1980s and more recently in Scotland have been successful.

Still you've got the lack of bio-diversity but surely this is a better answer than pine / other members of the conifer family.

bonkey

The argument about willow sequestering CO2 is fairly mnisleading.

Take an atmosphere with X "units" of CO2 in it. Grow a set of trees which remove Y units, leaving the atmosphere with X units.

Burn those trees for energy. Where do you think the Y units "sequestered" go? Why back into the atmosphere. This is why they call it a cycle after all.

So why does the value of Y matter so much? OK - in theory, if we had a sustained growth pattern, ad infinitum, then the cycling of trees would mean that the overall forestation remained constant, and thus gave a one-off benefit. However this benefit is not significant.

In fact, if you look at the article, you will notice in another spot that it admits wood is "CO2 neutral". To be honest, CO2 neutral is better than most thermal stations today, because they are releasing CO2 from fossil fuels. Granted, it was CO2 which was once in the atmosphere, but not recently - so in effect burning fossil fuels will result in CO2 level increases, whereas wood should not have such an effect.

The idea is good, but I'm not sure what other emissions wood-burning is heavy in.

BTW - the CO2-neutral argument shows why there is nothing exceptional about willow - it is no better than any other tree in this respect, other than for the miniscule reduction in CO2 which a large perpetuated forest may offer for a period.

jc