By MEGGIE I. FOSTER
Assistant Editor

JUHNDE, Germany — Attracting attention from bioenergy gurus worldwide, the small community of Juhnde, Germany, is making dreams of energy sustainability a reality by generating 75 percent of its energy needs with biorenewable resources.

In fact, Juhnde, made up of 750 residents, is Germany’s first official community to successfully generate electricity and heat through an independently-produced supply of biomass from neighboring cattle and grain farms, according to village guide Gerd Paffenholz, who added that the village will celebrate its 1,050th anniversary next year.

Electricity is generated through a centrally located biogas production facility that utilizes liquid cattle and hog manure and agricultural plants such as corn silage to produce biogas, a product similar to natural gas. The village’s heating system is a bioenergy combustion unit fed through a constant supply of wood chips from neighboring forestlands.

“Nearly the whole village is connected (on the grid) for the delivery of hot water and electricity for an entire year through this system,” said Paffenholz.

While not a concept of which every community can take advantage, Juhnde is ideally designed to take on this energy venture, with nine farmers located within the village, 1,300 hectares of agricultural area to grow energy crops such as corn silage, 800 hectares of forest to provide wood chips for the heating unit and enough people who agreed to participate from the get-go, explained Paffenholz.

In 2005, 60 percent of the town’s residents agreed to forgo their oil, gas and wood heating units to hook into the town’s new power station. In 2009, Juhnde increased that to 75 percent, with recently constructed homes containing new heating systems making up the remaining 25 percent yet to join in.

Paffenholz explained to participate, homeowners must agree to be a member of the cooperative at a cost of 1,500 Euros (just over of $2,200 USD), and also an initial fee of 1,000 Euros to connect to the electricity grid. Additionally, a fee of 2,500 Euros is required to connect radiators to the new water heating system.

In total, Juhnde residents fork over between 4,000-6,000 Euros, depending on their current heating system, to officially become a member of the biovillage cooperative.

“And if someone does not have the money to join the cooperative, we have arranged with the bank special conditions for financing,” he said. “We see 5,000 Euros as a good investment, because you’ll never have to buy a new oil system again.”

Per year, citizens of Juhnde pay approximately 500 Euros for hot water and 17 cent Euros (about a quarter, in USD) per kilowatt hour for electricity. The farmers play a large role in the Juhnde 24-hour energy cycle by providing the resources on a daily basis.

Paffenholz said 400 dairy cows (90 percent) and 500 pigs (10 percent) provide the liquid manure to feed the biogas power station. The end result: The production of 700 kilowatts of electricity per hour, where half of that energy is returned to power the system in a closed cycle.

And the farmers in Juhnde aren’t walking away empty-handed.
“It’s important to have a balance in what farmers receive back,” he said, explaining they receive the remaining substrate from the biogas production to use as a fertilizer for cropland.

“We only pay farmers for the corn silage, at approximately 300,000 Euro per year.”

Juhnde dairy farmer Karsten Harrihausen, who supplies cattle manure from his 130 cows for the town’s digestion unit, said the town’s new power station has provided income opportunities for his family to continue to stay in the dairy business.

“Our price for milk is very low, so Juhnde is helping to keep us in the dairy business, since we can sell corn silage and get fertilizer back by getting rid of the waste from our cattle,” Harrihausen said.
In case of emergency

To fulfill the possibility and likelihood of cold peaks in the winter, when the biomass power station can’t keep up with heat and energy needs of Juhnde when the temperature drops below -5 degrees Celsius (23 Fahrenheit), the town has incorporated a peak heating system that uses oil as a energy resource.

“This unit has the power capability of both of our other two units together,” said Paffenholz. “It serves two functions – for use during cold peaks and during emergency situations (when the biomass power system fails or malfunctions). We cannot have a point of zero energy or heat generation, so this is our backup, if needed.”
So far, the system has only been shut down for 30-40 days in 2008, but community organizers and citizens are still happy with the system, according to Paffenholz.

Funding

“In the beginning, the University of Gottingen provided funding from the European Union that was designated to go to local villages; later on, we had money from the government and we also have a loan from the bank,” he explained, adding the project initiated in 2001 and the cooperative began in 2004.

In total, Juhnde’s bioenergy system encompasses a 5.3-million Euro investment: 500,000 from the cooperative, 1.5 million from the government and 3.3 million in loans from the bank.

“One of the best points I can make about this project is that before 2005, 80 percent of Juhnde homes were heated with oil, the rest with gas and wood; now, this money comes from the village, from the farmers,” said Paffenholz.