Renewable energy from agro biomass

In Finland forest biomass is an important energy source but currently there is also interest to use agro biomass for energy. The free energy potential of agro biomass, i.e. 21TWh, is the same magnitude as the techno-economical potential of unused wood resources in Finland. An implementation of such an energy resource would require that 500,000ha of field should be allocated for the reed canary grass. The straw yield should be also harvested and gen- erated to energy. Biogas production from manure and bio waste would have less importance in the energy production but it would be important for recycling phosphorous. From the environmental point of view the utilization of straw for energy and biogas production would have clear environmental advantages compared with the fossil energy sources. The environmental impact of a wide-scale reed canary production depends on what crops the reed canary grass will replace. If the reed canary grass is cultivated instead of annual, intensively grown crops such as cereals and grassland for silage its environmental impact is positive. If it replaces fallows covered with perennial grasses its impact can be negative. In both cases it is supposed that the field area is allocated from one crop to another and the Finnish field area remains constant.