Scottish Power Announces Plan To Use 12% Of Scotland's Cropland To Grow Biofuels - Glascow Herald

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More than one-tenth of Scotland's agricultural land could be used to grow crops for fuel under a scheme launched yesterday by one of the leading utility companies. The move is a bid to cut emissions of greenhouse gases. ScottishPower said it was seeking contracts with farmers to produce 250,000 tonnes of energy crops, which are fast growing cereals or willow coppice, to displace coal burned at its Cockenzie and Logannet power plants.

The utility already burns carbon-neutral biomass such as woodchips at coal-fired power plants as part of its renewable energy programme. The move will use 12% of Scotland's farming land and has been welcomed by the National Farmers Union, which says Britain needs to move faster to catch up with the US, already producing "tens of million of tonnes" of energy crops.

The need to tackle global warming by moving away from carbon-based fuels such as oil and natural gas has led to a raft of government initiatives across Europe, requiring cars and trucks obtain 5% of fuel from crop-based sources such as bioethanol and biodiesel by 2010. Europe produced 268 million tonnes of cereals last year, but only 3.5 million tonnes of this was used for bioethanol. The 2007 target is five million tonnes.

ScottishPower said the move would have a minimal effect on land used for food crops.

EDIT

http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/news/display.var.1559391.0.0.php

http://www.energybulletin.net/32562.html