The promised land for bioenergy

Abstract: Bioenergy derived from agricultural biomass has potential to phase out fossil energy sources while strengthening the bioeconomy. To estimate the agricultural sector's potential to meet the rising demand for renewable energy sources, it is crucial to understand what motivate farmers to sustainably increasing agricultural feedstock production. Through eight semi-structured interviews, and online surveys with 174 farmers in southern Sweden, this study explores which opportunities and barriers farmers see in starting or increasing feedstock production for energy purposes. Furthermore, the study investigates which production methods with low risk for indirect land use change (iLUC) that farmers see the most potential in utilising. Motivational factors found in this study include higher market prices for plant residuals and energy crops, combined with more long-term and reliable subsidises that supports investments in new facilities and production systems. Low profitability, high risk investments and potential negative ecological consequences were seen amongst the most prominent barriers. Using residuals and growing intermediate crops were seen as particularly interesting production methods amongst many farmers, conditioned that there is a strong demand, and a flexible infrastructure for utilisation of the feedstock. The insights in which factors affect farmers' willingness to produce feedstock for bioenergy using low iLUC-risk production methods are important to consider when estimating the potential of agricultural derived bioenergy, as well as for forming policies that encourage sustainable bioenergy production.