Energy potential of dedicated crops: an economic and environmental appraisal of the use of “Miscanthus,

In recent years certain plants previously considered as weeds have been re-evaluated. Such plants, e.g. cardoon, broom, robinia, are able to grow in extreme conditions on arid and unproductive soil. The prospect of using alternative crops renders attractive the opportunity of introducing certain plant species onto farms that gradually are being abandoned or falling into disuse in specific Mediterranean areas (e.g. southern Italy). This land is generally unfertile and not easy to tend and is therefore unsuited to traditional farming. Energy crops are still little used and cost more than biomass from waste, and energy crops such as miscanthus, sorghum etc. are currently only being farmed experimentally or on a small scale. The aim of this paper is to analyse the environmental and economic performance of a production system based on the use of miscanthus. The latter is chosen because it appears to be the most promising non-food farm crop. The final goal is to assess the levels of economic and environmental sustainability.