News
Divergences between experiments and commercial willow plantations
Published: 02 March 2016
A study that was published in Bioenergy Research tries to answer how the yield range of small size experimental plots compares to large-scale commercial implementation. The results from this study can help to rationalize the expectations derived from experiments and to a more realistic planning of future plantation schemes.
Researchers from SLU, University of Eastern Finland and Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research have analysed the yields of fast-growing willow plantations for energy reported in several experimental trials compared with those from commercial willow plantations along the last decades.
The results showed that whereas the average yield recorded from experiments was 7.7 odt/ha year, the commercial plantations’ were 2.6 - 4.2 odt/ha year (entailing 1980s-2000s), and that the smaller the plot, the higher the yield ranges published. As a conclusion: experimental plots are a valid source of information but we must rationalize the expectations derived from experiments when extrapolating to a commercial level for large areas.