Claims unfair competition holding back growth of bioenergy industry

COMPETITION from unfairly subsidised imports and uncertainty about future support policies are holding back investment in the further development of the bioenergy industry in Ireland.

Teagasc researcher Bernard Rice pointed this out when he spoke at the National Bioenergy conference in Horse and Jockey, Co Tipperary, yesterday.

He said the amount of biomass needed to meet the heating-electricity targets far exceeds availability, so production of energy crops needs to expand rapidly.