Climate Suitable Energy Crops and Biomass Energy Potentials : Assessment of the Current and Future Prospects in Estonia

Abstract: Development of biomass energy plantations is one approach to mitigate and adapt to climate change and the energy challenges related to it; however, climate change will affect the climate conditions and in turn the selection of crops and trees suitable for renewable energy sources. In Estonia, electricity is mainly based on oil shale but since their integration in the European Union they are required to increase the share of energy from renewable sources. In this study, the possible changes of suitable species are assessed by examining the current and the future prospects and potentials with biomass energy derived from energy plantations in Estonia, taking climate change into consideration. The biomass energy potentials for the species that are climate suitable in current and future time are manually estimated, using a case study approach when determining the yields. The study result suggests that biomass energy from crops and trees have great development possibilities and that climate is not a key limitation for the selection of suitable species; in addition, the energy crops and trees appear to suit the future climate conditions better than the current. The results indicate that the established national target of 25% of energy from renewable sources in gross final consumption of energy by 2020 could be achieved to a large extent by putting energy plantations into practice.