Environmental effects of energy crop cultivation – results of a long-term field trial

In order to identify crop species for sustainable energy farming it is necessary to determine the significance of genetic, environmental and growing-technical factors. Therefore, in 1994 a long-term practically oriented field experiment on a sandy soil was established to investigate ten annual and perennial plant species and the effects of different N-fertilisation. The measuring programme includes yields, energy gain, N2O emissions as well as ecologically relevant plant and soil constituents. The results of this 15-year trial confirm the possibility of ecological and energy-efficient production of various energy crop species.