The first Biomass Connect Demo Event “Biomass harvesting and willow varieties” at our IBERS, Aberystwyth Hub Site is fast approaching, so here’s your chance to meet the speakers.
William Macalpine
William Macalpine, Rothamsted Research
Talk Title: Short rotation coppice willow varieties and learnings from Accelerating Willow Breeding and Deployment’s multi-site analysis
William is the willow breeder at Rothamsted Research. He has 19 years’ experience in willow breeding, perennial energy crop agronomy and in making phenotypic and physiological measurements. He has performed over 700 crosses, carried out research to overcome crossing barriers, produced mapping populations and elite SRC willow varieties. He has planned, planted and managed around 90 field trials. William has an in-depth knowledge of the UK National Willow Collection, a unique Salix germplasm resource, which is located at Rothamsted Research. Within Biomass Connect he leads Work Package 1, Hub Biomass Demonstration.
Kevin Lindegaard
Kevin Lindegaard, Crops for Energy
Talk Title: Short rotation coppice willow – making the right decisions: How the Envirocrops web app can help
Kevin Lindegaard is the director of Crops for Energy, the leading consultancy for biomass crop information in the UK. Crops for Energy was set up in 2004 to provide balanced, authoritative and independent information to farmers and landowners who are interested in planting and using biomass crops
Kevin has almost 3 decades of experience working in the field of biomass crops and renewable energy. The journey started during his 7 years working at Long Ashton Research Station as the plant breeder in charge of the European Willow Breeding Programme. Here, Kevin was responsible for breeding high yielding and disease resistant willow varieties. Varieties included: Resolution, Endurance and Terra Nova.
Kevin is recognised both nationally across Europe for his energy crops policy work. In 2016 he published two frequently cited papers: “A critical appraisal of the effectiveness of UK perennial energy crops policy since 1990” in Renewable & Sustainable Energy Reviews, and “Short rotation plantations policy history in Europe: lessons from the past and recommendations for the future” in Food and Energy Security. He is a former director of the Wood Heat Association and co-founder of the Sustainable Fuel Register.
Most recently, Kevin along with Chris Johnston at AFBI is spearheading the Envirocrops project. This exciting new project, funded by BEIS’s Biomass Feedstock Innovation programme, looks to digitalise and streamline the decision-making process for choosing and growing biomass crops.
There are still places available at the event.
Entry is FREE and Open to all.
