Hungary’s total stock biomass is about 350-360 million tons, which represents nearly two-thirds of the total renewable energy resources of our country. The majority of this biomass is wood-based. Only about one sixth of the feasible resources have been hitherto harnessed. The future possibilities in biomass production can be attained by plantations (energy plantations), among which the ones cultivating trees are called energy tree plantations. Over many hundreds of thousands of hectares of such stands are expected to be planted in Hungary in the near future. Planting of such huge volumes can only be carried out at a scheduled rate when applying the appropriate type of machinery and cultivation technology.

Because the technologies required on energy tree plantations differ substantially from the equipment used at traditional forests, machine development is unavoidable. In our research and development we have defined and systematized the actions and the corresponding machinery for the cultivation technology of energy tree-plantations. We have establised if a technological step needs machine developments or better the design of completely new machine prototypes. Respecting several technological parameters (eg planted woods species, area size, etc.) we have proposed different production lines for the cultivation technology of short-and longrotation energy tree plantations and for the underwood level of flood plain forests taking into account machine upkeep and operational costs.