The University of Glasgow’s new Solar and Bioenergy Research Centre aims to slow the pace of climate change by developing renewable fuels. Dr Peter Dominy, a plant biologist at the Centre and one of the team organising an international conference as its launch event this week, says that growing willow, poplar or elephant grass in marginal areas of Scotland could fuel the UK. ‘In theory’ he says, ‘planting an area the size of the Highlands could generate as much energy as that currently used in UK transportation’. He says that such plants would not compete with food crops because they could be grown in ground unsuitable for food production.

Elephant grass – or Miscanthus Gigantus, grows up to four metres high and scientists in this field feel that it could be the ideal crop to grow on marginal land for conversion into liquid fuels. Because it avoids competition with food crops, they claim it will avoid the environmental problems today’s biofuels can cause.

Fine. But let’s pause a moment. Is this thinking a little colonial? Are we happy with the notion that ‘marginal areas in Scotland’ could be planted with this stuff to fuel the UK? Is it a little impractical? Look at what happened to the corncrake, which became an endangered species. Nesting in the middle of fields traditionally harvested from the outside to the centre, corncrakes were continually – and terminally – surprised by the approach of harvesting machinery that simply couldn’t see them – or stop in time. So, moving forwards in time: a balmy weekend in a ‘marginal area’ of Scotland. Scots of breeding age take to the countryside for a little peace and quiet in the cover of the twelve foot high elephant grass. And along comes the harvester… Yes, this is a trivialising response – but to an idea unrooted in reality.

At least the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Scotland, an environmental group, is less than certain about this proposal. It supports the use of plants to produce renewable energy – but only if they can be grown without negative environmental and social impacts. Its food expert, Adam Harrison, agrees that elephant grass and willow could produce large amounts of energy – IF they are grown to strict sustainability standards. ‘Large-scale developments could still have unacceptable impacts on the landscape, on water, soils and wildlife’, he says.

Photo above – of types of elephant grass (or Miscanthus Gigantus) on trial in Illinos. Note its scale compared to the people in the top right of the scene. Public domain photo by University of Illinois.