A tool to estimate energy crops costs on a PC

What are energy crops?

Energy crops are perennial grasses and trees produced with traditional agricultural practices and used to produce electricity, liquid fuels, and chemicals. The Bioenergy Feedstock Development Program at Oak Ridge National Laboratory has identified hybrid poplars, hybrid willows, and switchgrass as having the greatest potential for dedicated energy use over a wide geographic range. Agricultural, forest, and municipal solid wastes are valuable short term bioenergy resources, but do not provide the same long term advantages as energy crops.

Where can energy crops be grown?

Energy crops can be grown on most of the more than 400 million acres classified as cropland in the U.S. They offer many environmental advantages when produced on erosive lands or lands that are otherwise limited for conventional crop production.

Commercial scale production of energy crops is just beginning. In Minnesota, 5,000 acres, most of it land deemed erosion-prone and requiring special care to protect the soil, was planted with millions of hybrid poplars. A decade from now, some of these trees will be harvested, mixed with coal, and burned to produce electricity. The rest will be available for other uses, including the production of transportation fuels.

Farmers will soon begin planting switchgrass on approximately 4,000 acres in four southern Iowa counties. Area electric companies are interested in mixing the switchgrass with coal to reduce sulphur emissions, and to expand the use of renewable energy.

What does it cost to grow energy crops?

Successful commercial development of bioenergy systems will require that these systems be economically competitive with alternative energy systems, and provide an income to farmers comparable to that which they could earn producing conventional crops on the same land. The cost of producing energy crops is an integral component in determining the economic competitiveness of bioenergy systems. BIOCOST estimates the cost of producing hybrid poplars and switchgrass in seven regions of the U.S.

BIOCOST is an EXCEL-based program with a graphical interface that lets the user select a region and then specify values for several variables including expected yields, land rents, labor costs, and chemical, fertilizer, fuel, and planting stock prices. The user can also choose among several key management options. BIOCOST generates a report that includes yearly cost estimates by cost category as well as per acre and per ton costs. Minimum requirements to run BIOCOST include a 486/33 IBM-compatible computer with 8 MB RAM.

For additional information about BIOCOST, please contact Marie Walsh, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, P.O. Box 2008, Oak Ridge, TN 37831-6422, 865/576-5607 (voice), 865/574- 8884 (fax), WalshME@ornl.gov (email).