Refining Estimates of Land Biomass (RELB)

• ETI selected a group led by ADAS, which included E4tech, RDI Associates, Crops for Energy and Imperial College Consultants, for its Refining Estimates of Land for Biomass project
• The project aimed to refine the current estimates of available UK land for the production of biomass feedstock
• Existing land use availability studies were reviewed and the ETI’s BVCM land availability assumptions improved to give a better understanding of what land could be used to grow biomass and where

The ETI invested £186,000 in the four month project which aimed to refine existing estimates of the amount of UK land available for bioenergy crops and/or forestry by supplementing existing land constraint estimates with additional datasets and validating the results through field surveys.

Imperial College Consultants and E4tech initially reviewed recent UK and European land use studies to provide context for the next stage of the project in which ADAS led desk based and field based analyses on a set of sample areas from around the UK, selected using the ETI’s Bioenergy Value Chain Model (BVCM).

For the desk based analysis the team refined existing BVCM land availability assumptions using additional datasets from sources including the Environment Agency, Natural England and the European Commission. A selection of the same locations were then be assessed by surveyors.

Findings from the desk and field surveys were compared with each other and any differences were identified and explained. The report made recommendations on how BVCM’s land availability estimates could be further refined across the UK.