For energetic purposes
It is still debated whether the name "energy plant" is a proper term for those wood plants and herb which have been planted on plantations for energetic purposes. This name has already become a household expression, but it is fundamentally wrong. It's not really scientific, but more of a name by the media. Actually, all plants store a substantial part of the solar energy in themselves, which means they are "energy plants".
In spite of some faults and defects, vegetable biomass is still the perfect resource of transformed solar energy and it's also one of the cleanest resources of renewable energy. Biomass stores the energy of the sunshine in the form of chemical energy. Actually, currently exploited fossil energy is also vegetable.
The energy efficiency index of Virginia sida (Eh = Eoutput / Einput) competes with that of energy tree, which is 21!
It is the perfect raw material for energetic purposes, with efficient transformation (not with pirolysis)!
The plant can be cultivated in cohesive soil and even on sandy soil as well. Cultivation is really economical even on lands with a value of 12-14 AK ("Gold Crown", Hungarian unit) and it's really useful for several different purposes. After the third year following planting, the species grows 20-40 stems from one stool which stems will die back during winter. The plantation will live for 20-30 years. Virginia sida will provide a good harvest on all kinds of lands, even on dry, cohesive or sandy lands having a value of only 10-something AK. Virginia sida completely resists frost and drought.
The amount of harvestable Virginia sida depends on many factors. Depending on the quality of the arable, 9-25 tons dry weight/ha/year can be harvested, but for example an arable with medium quality will result in 20 tons dry weight/ha/year from the second year.
| Heating attributes of Scots Pine, spruce and Virginia sida | |||
| Species | Amount t/ha/year |
Calorific value MJ/kg (dry weight) |
heat amount MJ/ha |
| Scots Pine (25 years old) | 3.9 | 17.417 | 67 926 |
| Spruce (35 éves) | 5.1 | 18.212 | 92 881 |
| Virginia sida | 9.3-17.8 | 18.746 | 174 338-333 679 |
