By MEGGIE I. FOSTER
Assistant Editor BAD HERSFELD, Germany — Similarly to American farmers, Germans are in the search for opportunities to plug into the bioenergy phenomenon (wind, solar, hydropower and biogas) to boost income and stay afloat in an often volatile ag economy, according to researchers at Gut Eichhof, an agricultural training and research farm in Hessen, Germany.
“It is becoming more and more important to give farmers an opportunity to earn more money than say dairy production alone,” said Klaus Wagner, of the Hessen school.
According to Wagner, under current circumstances in the European economy, German dairy farmers are earning about 21 Euro cents per liter of milk produced with a cost of production at 33 Euro cents (per liter of milk as of Oct. 7), resulting in a negative loss of 12 Euro cents. Wagner said breakeven for German producers is around 40 Euro cents per liter of milk. He cites an overproduction of milk as cause for the low milk price.
Consequently, Gut Eichhof is working with the Fraunhofer Institution for Wind Energy and Energy Systems Technology (IWES), one of the largest research and development firms in the country, focusing on bioenergy systems including wind, solar, hydropower and biogas. Partnering in some areas of research, they are working to integrate pilot plants, laboratories and microcombustion chambers on both farms and commercial power plants.
“We don’t develop components, what we do is work to integrate renewables into the energy supply,” said Dr. Bernd Krautkremer, an engineer at IWES.
Krautkremer added that the biggest problem holding Germany back in this area is that there are only a few players in the power supply chain and “in the beginning they saw renewable energy as an annoyance, a negative load; and they only saw high costs.
Tomorrow, we expect some new operators to come on board, where we can tailor the technology to fit their needs. For instance, a mixture of wind, wood, photovaltaic (solar) and bioenergy (biogas).”
What we want to do is show what can be delivered from the biogas sector to the grid, we care about power, voltage quality, and everything you need for power to be reliable,” he added.
Krautkremer said this is just one step to break through the system. Of course, cost is also a concern – “who will pay for all this.”
“We do not know the answer to that question, yet,” Krautkremer added.
Focusing on developing new opportunities for farmers, Wagner hopes that many producers will come on board to build small biogas plants utilizing methane gas from such feedstocks as corn silage and livestock manure. As a result, German farmers could save energy costs, and build extra income by selling their leftover power to the grid, he explained.
“You need good quality silage (and manure) to produce quality biogas, that’s why dairy producers are the best because they are the ones who understand how to grow silage,” Wagner described.
“We see it as very beneficial for small farmers (the average dairy herd in Germany is 50 cows) to build these (biogas) units, rather than large corporations,” he stated. “We say ‘pay attention farmers, don’t let these guys take over the market,’ let’s share the profit, instead of corporations trying to take it all.”
Krautkremer added that German farmers can earn up to 21 Euro cents per kilowatt hour from producing and selling on-farm energy, utilizing corn silage and manure waste from cattle.
“Milk production and energy production belong together- it’s a sort of synergy,” said Wagner.
“Farmers can earn extra money from the energy of their cows that is otherwise considered waste.”
Currently, 4,000 operators in Germany have opened a biogas power plant, primarily used to generate electricity. In the United States, there are approximately 140 anaerobic digesters in operation, mainly located on large livestock operations of more than 17,000 animal units. The average cost to build a digester in the United States is estimated to be about $1 million, with limited subsidies available for assistance. Whereas in Germany, farm operators can receive numerous government subsidies and tax incentives to build small-scale digesters, as well as solar panels that can support dairies of more than 100 cows.
Other areas of bio-research at the Hessen school include: poplar trees and miscanthus as a potential biomass crop to generate heat, or for use in bioplastics; a biomass heating unit that combines wood from poplar trees, wood chips, miscanthus and corn to generate heat for water (currently this unit produces 33 percent of the heat needed for the Hessen school farm buildings). Not specifically related to bioenergy, the Hessen research center is also studying the economic benefits of a robotic milking system on its on-site 120-cow dairy operation.
In addition to serving as a consulting organization for farmers and gardeners, Gut Eichhof operates a training school for young pupils interested in production agriculture, according to Andreas Sandhager.
According to Sandhager, every state in Germany has its own agricultural training center, which conducts research studies, and offers students the opportunity to enroll in one-to-two-day agricultural courses and/or up to three years worth of farm studies and apprenticeships with neighboring farmers. Broadly, courses include animal production, beehive management and plant production.
Sandhager estimates that the top 25 percent of German farmers earn about three times the income of an average city worker.
For more information on the Hessen school and IWES research, visit www.iset.uni-kassel.de |
