Biomass Cropping Case Study

Overview

This site shown to the right has been chosen as a case study for Short Rotation Coppice (SRC) as it has an existing SRC crop whose greenspace is managed by Greenbelt group.

Along with Google maps, an online mapping tool and an SRC estimation spreadsheet will be used to calculate the yield and anticipated financial returns. These tools can be downloaded from the Biomass Cropping Workflow Tab in the Workflow page of this site Go to Biomass Cropping Workflow

Shown above is a Google maps image of the SRC crop site (highlighted in red) which was chosen for the biomass SRC case study.

Technical and Financial Feasibility

Using the online mapping tool detailed in the workflow the map contained in the image below was produced.

Shown above is the image of the SRC crop site area and resulting estimated area.

From the sites map it can be seen that the estimated area which is currently used for SRC cropping is 0.317 km². With this estimated area the crop yield, estimated energy value, sale price and site margin can be estimated using the cropping estimator spreadsheet.

The image below shows the SRC crop area as an input to the cropping estimator spreadsheet, as can be seen the appropriate unit has been selected along with the SRC willow crop type. Also shown is the processed fuel type which has been selected as wood chips due to the lower production cost when compared to wood pellets.

When the crop area has been entered into the cropping estimator spreadsheet the spreadsheet uses this to estimate yield, crop price, kWh and price per kWh. This part of the spreadsheet is shown in the image below.

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