Welcome to RELU-Biomass

Future policies are likely to encourage more land use under energy crops: principally willow, grown as short rotation coppice, and the tall grass miscanthus. These crops will make an important contribution to the UK’s commitment to reducing CO2 emissions and are grown under low input agriculture. However, they are quite different from the arable crops that we are used to and it is not clear how planning decisions based on climate, soil and water should be balanced against impacts on the landscape, social acceptance, biodiversity and rural economy. RELU-Biomass will provide a holistic assessment of the potential impacts of increasing rural land use under miscanthus and SRC willow, focusing on two study regions – the South-West and the East Midlands.