WABCG 2010: Sugar Beet Could Have Substantial Role in EU Biofuels
by Richard Allison (Farmers Weekly Interactive) Nearly 15,000ha of sugar beet being grown this season in Germany is destined for biogas production, equivalent to about one-tenth of the total area in the UK given over to sugar beet.
It is part of the German government’s drive over the past decade to increase renewable energy generation, explained Volker Utesch of KWS SAAT at the recent World Association of Beet and Cane Growers (WABCG) conference held in Cambridge.
At the heart is the feed-in tariff, which gives generators a guaranteed price for their gas/electricity for 20 years. This is the scheme that the UK feed-in tariff introduced earlier this year, was modelled on.
…There are 4780 anaerobic digester plants in Germany generating 1600MW, the equivalent of one-and-a-half nuclear power plants, he said.
Of these, there are about 800 on-farm plants producing biogas using energy crops grown on 700,000ha, most of which is maize for maize silage topped up with rye, sorghum and sugar beet. READ MORE
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