Miscanthus is money—and clean energy to boot.

The University of Iowa hosted a show-and-tell of sorts on Aug. 25, introducing federal and state lawmakers, farmers, and others to a new, locally grown crop the UI plans to use to produce energy on campus.

Guests visited two sites around Iowa City where the UI is growing miscanthus, and also toured the UI Power Plant, where the long-lived, perennial grass will be burned to provide electricity, heating, and cooling on campus.

The UI aims to generate 10 percent of its energy needs from miscanthus, which will be included with other natural products, such as oat hulls and wood chips, in the university’s Biomass Fuel Project. The initiative earlier this year earned a 2015 Governor’s Environmental Excellence Award–Special Recognition in Energy.

The use of biomass—and other fuel sources—further positions the UI to meet its goal of obtaining 40 percent of its energy needs from renewable sources by 2020.

The UI is partnering with agronomists at Iowa State University on learning more about the grasses’ benefits to wildlife, water, and soil conservation as well as best practices for growing it. The agricultural services firm Repreve Renewables LLC is helping to shepherd the project to commercial scale.

The university plans next year to double its current 350-acre planting at locations in Iowa City, Cedar Rapids, and Muscatine, and is seeking landowners with whom to partner in the project.