14 DAY TRIAL // Writing in a recent issue of the journal Energy Policy, a team of scientists with the University of Manchester's Tyndall Center for Climate Change Research argue that, according to data at hand, the United Kingdom has the means to have nearly 50% of its power demand met by biomass sources by the year 2050.
Specifically, the researchers argue that, given the right policies, household waste, agricultural residues, homegrown biofuels and the like can generate enough energy to provide for as much as 44% of the country's overall need by said date.
What's more, they say that, in order to up its dependence on biomass sources to such an extent, the country would not even have to resort to imports.
On the contrary, it would appear that the United Kingdom's own biomass sources would be more than enough to help the country improve on its ecological footprint by greening up its energy sectors.
In their paper, the researchers also stress that, despite switching to relying heavily on biomass sources for power, the country is highly unlikely to experience trouble having to do with food availability.
“The widely discussed barriers for energy from biomass include the competition for land that may otherwise be used to grow food and the narrative that biomass will have to be imported to the UK if we want to use increased levels of bioenergy,” explains scientist Andrew Welfle, as cited by Click Green.
“But our research has found that the UK could produce large levels of energy from biomass without importing resources or negatively impacting the UK's ability to feed itself,” he goes on to argue.
The University of Manchester Researchers believe that, for the time being, the United Kingdom is a long way from making the most of its biomass resources.
Thus, they say that, despite the fact that they are highly abundant in the country, agricultural residues, especially straws and slurry resources, are currently underutilized.
“The UK has legally binding renewable energy and greenhouse gas reduction targets, and energy from biomass is anticipated to make major contributions to these,” Andrew Welfle commented on the importance of exploiting these resources.