Energy crops in Ireland: An assessment of their potential contribution to sustainable agriculture, electricity and heat production
This page displays all of the metadata information which describes this resource. This metadata information provides details of: the owners and creators of this resource; download links to any files which are available for downloading; geographical and temporal information about the datasets or project in general; other information such as a description of the project, experimental techniques used, data download restrictions, etc.
View other resources on SAFER owned/managed by the owner of this resource.
Files attached to this resource have been downloaded 224 times.
View Download Timeline Graphic
Resource or Project Abstract
This dataset includes life-cycle analyses and economic analyses for Miscanthus and willow heat and electricity fuel-chains in Ireland. Displaced agricultural land-uses and conventional fuels were considered in fuel-chain permutations. Avoided greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions ranged from 7.7 to 35.2 t CO2 eq. ha-1 a-1. Most fuel-chain permutations exhibited positive discounted financial returns, despite losses for particular entities at a farm-gate processed-biomass price of ?100 t-1 dry-matter. Attributing a value of ?10 t-1 CO2 eq. to avoided GHG emissions, but subtracting financial returns associated with displaced fuel supplies, resulted in discounted annual national economic benefits (DANEBs) ranging from -?457 to ?1887 ha-1 a-1. Extrapolating a plausible combination of fuel-chains up to a national indicative scenario resulted in GHG emission avoidance of 3.56 Mt CO2 eq. a-1 (5.2% of national emissions), a DANEB of 167 M?, and required 4.6% of national agricultural land area. As cost-effective national GHG avoidance options, Miscanthus and willow fuel-chains are robust to variation in yields and CO2 price, and appear to represent an efficient land-use option (e.g. compared with liquid biofuel production). Policies promoting utilisation of these energy-crops could avoid unnecessary, and environmentally questionable, future purchase of carbon credits, as currently required for national Kyoto compliance
Go back to top of page
Top 
Contact Information for This Resource
| Dr. David Styles |
| Environmental Research Centre |
| Prof. Mike Jones |
| Trinity College Dublin |
Go back to top of page
Top
Data, Files, Information Objects Related To This Project Resource
Please Read Carefully Before Downloading
It is important for the EPA and the Environmental Research Community to know that the data and information products we distribute are useful to the user community we support. One way of doing this is by tracking the use of data and information in publications. Parts of or all of the datasets, data, or digital information products available here can be freely downloaded for further use in scientific applications under the condition that the source will be properly quoted in published papers, journals, websites, presentations, books, etc. Whenever possible the EPA strongly urge you to cite the use of these data, information, and web resources in the reference section of your publications. For convenience an automatically generated citation is available below which can be used immediately for citation purposes.
EPA SAFER Data Download Disclaimer: Before downloading any of the data or information objects below you are kindly asked to read the data download disclaimer Read Disclaimer (Opens in New Window). Downloading data or information objects from SAFER-Data indicates an acceptance of the data download disclaimer and the conditions outlined within it.
| Attachment Name and Download Link |
|---|
| Att 1 Energy_crops_in_Ireland.doc (0.11 Mb) |
| Att 2 Energy_crops_in_Ireland.xls (0.35 Mb) |
Suggested Citation Information
The information supplied in the table below should be provided with all citations to this electronic resource. You are requested to format each of the fields below as required by the specific bibliographical style you are using.
| Author(s) | Styles, D. Jones, M. |
| Title Of Website | Secure Archive For Environmental Research Data |
| Publication Information | Energy crops in Ireland: An assessment of their potential contribution to sustainable agriculture, electricity and heat production |
| Name of Organisation | Environmental Protection Agency Ireland |
| Electronic Address or URL | https://eparesearch.epa.ie/safer/resource?id=fa2287ae-3bf0-102b-950d-28616e04c7da |
| Unique Identifier | fa2287ae-3bf0-102b-950d-28616e04c7da |
| Date of Access | Last Updated on SAFER: 2024-12-14 |
An example of this citation in proper usage:
Styles, D. Jones, M. "Energy crops in Ireland: An assessment of their potential contribution to sustainable agriculture, electricity and heat production". Associated datasets and digitial information objects connected to this resource are available at: Secure Archive For Environmental Research Data (SAFER) managed by Environmental Protection Agency Ireland https://eparesearch.epa.ie/safer/resource?id=fa2287ae-3bf0-102b-950d-28616e04c7da (Last Accessed: 2024-12-14)
Go back to top of page Top
Access Information For This Resource
| SAFER-Data Display URL | https://eparesearch.epa.ie/safer/iso19115/display?isoID=54 |
| Resource Keywords | Energy-crops, Miscanthus, willow, GHG emissions, sustainable development, renewable energy |
| EPA/ERTDI/STRIVE Project Code | 2004-SD-DS-17-Jones |
| EPA/ERTDI/STRIVE Project Theme | Socio-Economics |
| Resource Availability: |
 Public-Open |
| Limitations on the use of this Resource | The usual academic acknowledgements should be used where information from the final report on this project is used. Please used the Citation below for an example of how a reference should be formatted.
|
| Number of Attached Files (Publicly and Openly Available for Download): | 2 |
| Project Start Date | Friday 1st April 2005 (01-04-2005) |
| Earliest Recorded Date within any attached datasets or digital objects | Wednesday 1st February 2006 (01-02-2006) |
| Most Recent Recorded Date within any attached datasets or digital objects | Sunday 30th April 2006 (30-04-2006) |
| Published on SAFER | Wednesday 5th March 2008 (05-03-2008) |
| Date of Last Edit | Wednesday 19th March 2008 at 14:16:24 (19-03-2008) |
| Datasets or Files Updated On | Wednesday 19th March 2008 at 14:16:24 (19-03-2008) |
Go back to top of page
Top
Geographical and Spatial Information Related To This Resource
Description of Geographical Characteristics of This Project or Dataset
The project study area was not constrained to one specific area or region. The project looked at energy crops in Ireland. The project has national relevance in this respect therefore national coverage.
Go back to top of page
Top
Supplementary Information About This Resource
In this section some supplementary information about this resource is outlined. Lineage information helps us to understand why this project was carried out, what policy or research requirements did it fulfil, etc. Lineage is important in understanding the rationale behind the carrying out of a project or the collection of a specific dataset etc. Links to web sites, applications, papers, etc are outlined to provide you with additional information or supplementary reading about the project or dataset
| Lineage information about this project or dataset |
| This data set was generated in response to changed market conditions, high fuel-import dependency and an increasing concern over GHG emisisons combining to improve the prospects for energy crop utilisation in Ireland. In particular, agricultural subsidy decoupling from production in 2005, and sharp increases in energy prices from 2005 onwards. There was a need to quantify the major environmental and economic impacts of energy-crop utilisation in Ireland. This work is relevant for Ireland's Kyoto and post-Kyoto GHG emission targets, and identifies alternative, more efficient biomass utilisation for electricity and heat generation, rather than transport biofuel use encouraged by EU Biofuels Directive. |
| Supplementary Information |
| LCA considered whole fuel chains, all direct and indirect emisisons, including those arising outside Ireland (e.g fertiliser manufacture; coal mining). Economic comparisons were based on a net present value approach, comparing income and expenditure over 20-yr time horizons for energy crop cultivation and electricity and heat generation. Differences in NPVs compared with substituted land uses and fuels were taken as the net economic impact (indirect economic impacts were not considered).
Annual Farm Survey data (2005); CSO land use data; National Inventory Report (2006) emissions data and factors; FAPRI-Ireland economic forecast data; multitude of literature sources for specific aspects of LCA and production costs. |
| Links To Other Related Resources |
| http://www.epa.ie/downloads/pubs/research/econ/name,23957,en.html (Opens in a new window) |
Any links supplied by the resource owner are stored such that they will open in a new window. Following such a link may lead to a 3rd party website over which EPA has no control in regards to contents or suitability.
Go back to top of page
Top
The following is a list of projects, datasets, and resources on SAFER-Data from which users downloaded attachments from soon after downloading attachments from this resource Energy crops in Ireland: An assessment of their potential contribution to sustainable agriculture, electricity and heat production. You can view the full description for projects, datasets, and resources by using the links supplied.
- Ireland's National Greenhouse Gas Inventory View Full Metadata Description
- Economy wide material flow analysis and ecological footprint of Ireland View Full Metadata Description
- Environmental Accounts for the Republic of Ireland: 1990-2005 View Full Metadata Description
- Climate Change - Implementationof the Global Climate Observing System in Ireland View Full Metadata Description
- Clarianna Rver Catchment - Raw Data Collection View Full Metadata Description
Go back to top of page
Top