Electricity may not exactly grow on trees. However, thanks to a new initiative in the UK, it could increasingly grow in farmers' fields. Syngenta has teamed up with two partners to help turn oilseed rape into electricity. This is the first such commercial project in Europe and uses technology from Syngenta Seeds to allow farmers to grow an abundant, renewable fuel source in their fields.
The UK is a signatory to the Kyoto Accords. These commit the country to cut one-fifth off carbon dioxide emissions by 2007. Bioelectricity is carbon dioxide emission-neutral. The Accords also require three to five percent of electricity to come from renewable sources by 2010.
Of the options available to UK agriculture, oilseed rape currently seems the best. Our variety Royal is the highest seed yield hybrid on the market. It allows farmers to produce about 1,800 litres of oil per hectare and 400 hectares can help generate enough electricity for 1,000 homes. If the existing acreage of oilseed rape was converted into bioelectricity it could light one million homes. That would be two percent of the UK total, supplied year in, year out, from renewable sources.
Farmers growing our high performing Royal crop have the ability to sell their crop to a company called Springdale Crop Synergies who then convert it into electricity which is used by Smartest Energy, part of the Japanese Marubeni Group, for its "green energy" customers. The Springdale electricity plant will be ready to receive its first trial deliveries this year.
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