How oilseed rape might brighten up Britain: when homes plug in to a field of yellow

Electricity may not exactly grow on trees. But thanks to a new initiative in the UK, it could increasingly grow in farmers’ fields. Syngenta is teaming up with two partners there to help turn oilseed rape (OSR) into electricity. This is the first such large commercial project in Europe.

The idea has already proved it can work: When Germany rebuilt its Berlin parliament building after reunification, OSR was part of the energy plan. This abundant renewable fuel source is still keeping the Reichstag warm and well lit. There are other good examples in France. The Syngenta venture with partner companies in the UK, however, aims to take this all a big step further.

Like many nations, the UK is a signatory to the Kyoto Accords. These commit the country to cut one-fifth off carbon dioxide emissions by 2007.

The Accords also require 3–5 percent of electricity to come from renewable sources by 2010. Security concerns are another encouragement to shift the UK away from future dependence on vulnerable pipeline supplies of Russian gas.

Which is where “fuel-farming” comes in.

Of the options available to UK agriculture, OSR currently seems the best. Syngenta Royal is the highest seed yield hybrid on the market. It allows farmers to produce about 1800 litres of oil per hectare. 400 hectares can help generate enough electricity for 1000 homes.

That may not sound like very much. But the UK already has 600,000 hectares of OSR. The same area again is currently EU ‘set aside’ – fallow land. Even the existing acreage could light one million homes. That would be 2% of the UK total, supplied year in, year out, from renewable sources. Better still, bioelectricity is CO2 emission-neutral. So power generation with OSR would make a double contribution to reaching Kyoto obligations.

Syngenta NK Seeds is now providing Royal to farmers with an OSR selling contract from the partnering electricity plant. Syngenta Crop Protection will support both parties with the best agronomic advice. By June 2005, the electricity plant should be ready to receive the first test deliveries. The second partner company will then buy the OSR power for its “green energy “ customers.

If the trial goes well, several former UK collieries intend to buy OSR for their electricity-producing turbines. And thereafter? If the UK devoted all its ‘set aside’ and half the existing OSR area to bioelectricity, the country would rapidly reach one of its major Kyoto targets.

For further information on UK plans for crop uses other than food, see www.defra.gov.uk/corporate/consult/nonfoodcrops/index.htm