Renewable energy is of increasing importance to the farm and rural
business. With a wide range of natural resource and space available,
farms have great potential to supply the feedstock and provide the
locations for renewable energy technologies. Farmers Weekly recently
conducted a survey amongst 698 farmers and landowners which revealed
that 38% farmers have already installed at least one renewable energy
technology. Of these, 75% are likely to make further investments.
As major suppliers of bioenergy feedstock, and as both users and
exporters of green power, farmers and landowners have several
opportunities diversify into the bioenergy sector. And it’s not just
on-farm installation projects, but opportunities to be included in
technical developments, R&D, trials and demonstrations promoting
biogas, biomass and biofuels.
The business support team at the European Bioenergy Resesarch
Institute (EBRI) at Aston University is keen to work with farmers and
landowners to explore bioenergy and supply chain opportunities, examine
the business case for farm-based bioenergy enterprises and assist in
technical deployment.
Bioenergy business support to farm enterprises in the West Midlands
EBRI’s work with farm enterprises and landowners includes a strucutured
programme of free events (from November 2013), knowledge transfer
activities and one to one expertise focussed on the application of
bioenergy technologies.
If you’d like to speak to an EBRI adviser about how we can help, get in touch.
Some useful facts for farmers considering bioenergy:
The introduction of the Renewable Heat Incentive for commercial
installations in November 2011 has increased the interest in bioenergy
on farms. Heat produced can be used within the farm business e.g.
glasshouse production or exported via a district heating system to local
customers.
Defra and The National Farmers Union are working towards growing the
UK’s number of on-farm AD (anaerobic digestion) plants from around 40 to
1,000 by 2020 as stated in Shared Goals for AD and endorsed by the
Coalition Government. Combined with 200 larger waste-linked AD
facilities proposed, these plants could generate about 4.5% of the UK’s
renewable energy target in the form of heat and power.
Neither the burning of biomass for heat nor the digestion of
biomaterial through AD are new processes. However, with the scale of
investment likely for on-farm installation of these processes,
innovative bioenergy technologies could provide distinct added value
over standard treatments and make a difference to viability and
deployment. R&D is focused upon improving organic feedstock quality,
broadening the range of usable feedstock type for biogas and biomass
through pre-treatment, improving the digestion process, and upgrading
gas quality in AD to enable wider use e.g. as a transport fuel, and
introducing new processes such as pyrolysis for the treatment of
digestate.
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