Elephant grass energyof future, farmers told

ELEPHANT grass has the potential to turn the auld Irish sod into the energy fields of the future.

That became clear at Limerick’s two-day show as farmers lined up to hear more about the economics of growing the high yielding perennial crop, more correctly known as miscanthus.

It has a bamboo like stem, grows to the height of a towering basketball player and can be used to produce alternative energy and other products.

JHM Crops Ltd, Adare, Co Limerick, growers of the first commercial crop of miscanthus in Ireland, had a stand at the two day show. It dealt with scores of inquiries from farmers seeking different uses for land.

Personnel on other trade stands highlighted solar water heaters, geothermal heat pumps, wood pellet boilers and other forms of alternative heating.

Soaring oil prices and worries about the longer term security of oil and gas supplies in Ireland, hugely dependent on imports, fuelled the public interest in the various energy systems.

Professor Michael Hayes, of the University of Limerick, told visitors to the show at Limerick Racecourse in Patrickswell that people in Ireland should be worried about energy.

But on the other hand they should not be because Ireland has more good land per head of population than any other country in the world. “And we also have an abundant rainfall which is one of our great assets,” he said.