DATE: April 28, 2009

CONTACT: Jim Frederick, 843-662-3526, ext. 228
jfrdrck@clemson.edu

WRITER: Peter Hull, 843-554-7226, ext. 118
phull@clemson.edu

Rural Heritage meets 21st century: Clemson’s switchgrass heading to Europe

FLORENCE — On the day more than 1,000 people celebrated South Carolina’s rural heritage along Clemson’s Outdoor Education Trail, one of the Pee Dee region’s stalwart crops has found a 21st century role — in Europe.

Researchers at Clemson University’s Pee Dee Research and Education Center Saturday announced an initiative with Charleston-based Carolina-Pacific LLC to supply switchgrass to European power plants as a substitute for coal to generate electricity.

Carolina-Pacific will need more than 350,000 tons of switchgrass per year for its European markets beginning in 2012. The initiative is worth more than $20 million a year to South Carolina farmers during the next decade, company officials said.  

To meet this demand, about 10,000 acres of switchgrass will be planted in South Carolina beginning in 2010, with the total rising to 60,000 in the coming years. One acre of switchgrass yields about six metric tons.

Clemson agronomist James Frederick, who studies the science and technology of utilizing plants for food, fuel and other applications at the Pee Dee center, said the Carolina-Pacific initiative will benefit South Carolina farmers and rural communities along the Interstate 95 corridor.

“Wide-scale switchgrass production will help fill the economic losses created by the decline in markets for the region’s traditional crops, such as cotton, tobacco and ornamental grass,” Frederick said.

Carolina-Pacific will pay farmers for their crops and Clemson researchers will assist in how to plant crops and make the most from their fields.

Switchgrass is a native, perennial, drought-tolerant crop that has a high biomass yield and is environmentally friendly to produce. Historically, switchgrass has been used as a hay and silage crop and occasionally planted for wildlife habitats. More recently the crop has taken on a new role.

“Switchgrass is proving to be a well-adapted crop to the dry soils of South Carolina and one for which there appears to be a rapidly growing green-energy market” Frederick said.

Demand for switchgrass is expected to continue to rise with increased use of biomass crops for energy in the European utility markets, said John B. Kern, Carolina-Pacific chief executive officer.

Further demand is expected in domestic utility markets and in the production of cellulosic ethanol. The South Carolina acreage needed to meet the demand identified by Carolina-Pacific will be nearly three times the number of acres of tobacco grown in the state, Kern said.

“The 21st century is the century for switchgrass,” Kern said. “We need to develop acre after acre after acre.”

Clemson officials made the announcement during the 2009 Rural Heritage Celebration at the Pee Dee center’s Outdoor Education Trail.

The annual outdoor event featured the best of South Carolina’s home-grown foods, exhibits on how the state's rural heritage was shaped and displays on renewable energy and how it will help power South Carolina’s future.

Interactive learning centers located throughout the 1.5-mile long trail explained the importance of natural resources found in the ecosystems of our region. And visitors were treated to an educational display by the Center for Birds of Prey, which brought an Asian brown wood owl and Harris’ hawk from the center in Awendaw.

END

On the Web
To download a map of the trail, visit http://www.clemson.edu/oet.

Trail supporters
Pee Dee Endowment Program; ArborOne; S.C. Farm Bureau Federation; Honda; Wildlife Action; Clemson University Landscapes for Learning Program; Clemson University Alliance 2020 Program; Darlington Soil and Water Conservation District; Leslie and Bob Harris; Pee Dee Land Trust; Monsanto; S.C. Cotton Board; S.C. Soybean Board; S.C. Forestry Commission; U.S. Forest Service; Dekalb; Pee Dee Sierra Club; Francis Marion University, biology and English departments.