Environmental Technologies & Climate Change
Renewable Energy & Sustainable Technologies
Renewable energy in all its forms, wind, water, solar, biomass and biogas offers real potential both as a method of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and being a viable rural diversification. As a tool of rural regeneration renewable energy offers great potential for reducing rural energy poverty, stimulating local industry and providing the service sector and tourism with a marketable green image whist lowering their energy bills and boosting rural employment.
Harper Adams is firmly committed to the renewable agenda and has worked with a range of different partners to implement several environmental and sustainable technology initiatives on the campus in recent years. These include:
- Photovoltaics on the roofs of college buildings
- Sustainable building design
- An electric utility vehicle
- Anaerobic digestion of animal waste
To read a more on some of these initiatives, simply click on the links to be taken to an explanatory report in Openfields, the landbased library online. You can also contact the author, Dr Andrea Humphries.
Biofuel from Crop Waste
Oilseed Rape (OSR) straw shows considerable promise as a crop residue biomass fuel. Being an agricultural waste product, it offers a significant environmental benefit in the food versus fuel debate that has arisen from the increasing use of energy crops such as Miscanthus. It also offers the opportunity to increase the gross margin of the OSR crop. A research project is underway at Harper Adams to measure the biomass properties of OSR. Click the links to read a more about this project in Openfields. You can also contact the author, Leticia Chico-Santamarta.
Bioenergy West Midlands
Bioenergy West Midlands was developed by Harper Adams University College and the Defra Farming and Food Team, with the aim of promoting interest and activity in, and markets for, bioenergy in the West Midlands . Bioenergy West Midlands encompasses three main market areas, namely biomass, biogas, and biofuel (bioethanol and biodiesel). Promotion is achieved through the initiative’s website (www.bioenergywm.co.uk), the Alternative Energy Guide and through demonstration events, seminars, networks events and regional conferences.