Green gold losing its glitter to be?

By KATHARINE SANDERSON (email the author)
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Posted Monday, November 2 2009 at 00:00

The promise of Green Gold is fading from Jatropha curcas, a shrub that thrives
in arid conditions and whose seeds yield a diesel-like oil.

Many had seen it as a potential saviour for marginal lands, a plant that could
lift developing countries out of poverty and into a sustainable oily future.

Just last year, some analysts were predicting that the area planted with
jatropha worldwide â€" at the time, 721,000 hectares â€" would rise as high as
22 million hectares by 2014.

The Jatropha Alliance, an advocacy group based in Berlin, was estimating that
investments of up to $1 billion could be expected annually.

More than 130 companies were in the race, dominated by D1 Oils of London, which
in 2007 had landed a $160 million deal with oil giant BP.

But this July, BP and D1 announced that their deal was off.

And of 140 investments made in biofuels so far this year, says analyst Harry
Boyle of London-based New Energy Finance, only four or five have been in
jatropha projects. “Jatropha has gone very quiet,” he says.

What happened?

It’s difficult to untangle the impacts of the global financial downturn from
disappointment with jatropha in particular, says Rob Bailis, an environmental
scientist at Yale University.

But, “over the past three years, the investment got way ahead of the plant
science,” he says.

Early investors are now realising the plant’s limitations.

Jatropha can live in very dry conditions, but doesn’t necessarily yield a lot
of seeds.

The plant takes three years or more to reach maturity, requiring care along the
way.

And jatropha seedlings are often not well-suited to the climate in which they
are planted.

Even supporters acknowledge that the allure of jatropha is fading somewhat.

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