Around six thousand native trees are to be planted at the NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI) central west Trangie Agricultural Research Centre as part of a Biomass for Bioenergy project.
Senior Research Scientist at NSW DPI, Fabiano Ximenes said the project would investigate opportunities for increasing the amount of sustainable biomass used in NSW, with a focus on electricity generation.
“Approximately 6,000 drought tolerant trees will be planted at the Research Centre, in an area of around three hectares,” Dr Ximenes said.
“The project will identify available and potential feedstocks for bioenergy generation at varying scales, with an understanding of the economic viability and social constraints,” he said.
Dr Ximenes said the planting of woody biomass crops could provide a significant opportunity for farmers to diversify their income by using marginal areas of their land.
“Dedicated biomass crops would benefit less productive areas, diversify the regional base and result in the creation of long-term job opportunities in regional NSW, across all parts of the supply chain, covering growing, harvesting, transporting and processing,” he said.
NSW DPI said trial sites had been established at Yanco, Orange, Glen Innes, Tamworth and Scone, with additional sites set to be planted in Muswellbrook and Grafton.
