In Massachusetts, biomass energy has typically meant wood chips derived from the region’s extensive forest cover. Yet nationally, biomass energy from dedicated energy crops and from crop residues is thought to have significantly more potential than forest biomass energy (Perlack, Wright et al. 2005). One key feature of biomass energy crops is that they can have much higher energy yields per hectare than are available from the forest. Thus a relatively small amount of agricultural land might be used to produce a disproportionate amount of the Commonwealth’s biomass energy.


Biomass Energy Crops:  Massachusetts’ Potential (PDF)