Summary
Published 9 December 2021
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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/area-of-crops-grown-for-bioenergy-in-england-and-the-uk-2008-2020/summary
Key messages for 2020
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121 thousand hectares of agricultural land in the UK were used to grow crops for bioenergy.
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This area represents just under 2.1% of the arable land in the UK.
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30% of land used for bioenergy was for biofuel (biodiesel and bioethanol) in the UK road transport market with the remainder mostly used for heat and power production.
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293 million litres/kilograms of biofuel for the UK road transport market were produced from UK grown crops.
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Just under 7.2 million tonnes oil equivalent of plant biomass were used to produce electricity and heat in the UK.
Overview of agricultural area used for bioenergy crops(a)(b)(c)
| Year | Wheat | Sugar beet | Maize | Short rotation coppice | Miscanthus | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 41 | 8 | 34 | 3 | 7 | 93 |
| 2016 | 66 | 3 | 52 | 3 | 7 | 132 |
| 2017 | 56 | 5 | 57 | 3 | 7 | 129 |
| 2018 | 22 | 7 | 57 | 3 | 7 | 96 |
| 2019 | 11 | 8 | 67 | 2 | 8 | 96 |
| 2020 | 29 | 7 | 75 | 2 | 8 | 121 |
Source: Department for Transport RTFO data, UK Agricultural Departments June Survey/Census of Agriculture
(a) Data for maize used as feedstock for anaerobic digestion only available from 2014.
(b) Due to a changes to the RTFO dataset, 2018 covers 15th April to 31st December 2018 and is not directly comparable to previous years which covered a time period from April to April.
(c) From 2019 onwards RTFO data is representative of full calendar years.
121 thousand hectares (ha) of agricultural land was used for bioenergy crops in the UK in 2020 comprising:
- 29 thousand ha of wheat and 7 thousand ha of sugar beet used for biofuels
- 75 thousand ha of maize used for Anaerobic digestion[footnote 1]
- 8 thousand ha of miscanthus and 2 thousand ha of short rotation coppice used in biomass
The chart above shows how this compares to areas grown annually since 2015.
In 2020 Arable land used for bioenergy crops in the UK equated to 2.1% of the total arable area. This was an increase from 1.6% in 2019. [footnote 2]
30% of land used for bioenergy in 2020 was for biofuel (biodiesel and bioethanol) crops for the UK road transport market, with the remainder used mostly for heat and power production.
About these statistics
The majority of data published in this report covers the last six years, from 2015 to 2020. Historical data can be found in the dataset that accompanies this report that has been published alongside these statistics.
A range of national and official statistics sources are used to produce this publication. The report itself is an official statistics release produced in accordance with the Code of Practice for Statistics and its key principles of; trustworthiness, quality and value. More details can be found on the official statistics website.