Energy transition is happening in all sectors of society. Also on the arable farm in the field of energy use a lot is going to change. Within the AGROS work package “Infrastructure for Energy” we are analyzing the alternatives on arable farms. The EU policy document Farm2Fork as well as the Green Deal described that agriculture has to operate climate neutral in 2035. In any case, it is clear that a farm will have to produce on a “fossil-free” basis and eventually be energy-neutral.
In many cases, the farm is already contributing strongly to the energy transition by producing a lot of renewable energy. Solar panels and wind turbines are the main sources. On the demand side, the farm has a highly variable energy need over the year. For field work, diesel is now the standard, while in and around the farm building (including storage), electricity is the main source of energy. A modeling study is currently calculating this energy demand for both a “standard farm” and a strip cropping farming system with light weight mechanization.
The obvious alternatives to diesel for field operations are a combination of electricity and H2 (hydrogen). Based on the idea of self-sufficiency, the level of electricity production needed will be based on the peaks in demand. The need for hydrogen for the high power work in the field and transportation will also be analyzed. It is known from experience that the cost of hydrogen production depends heavily on its scale. Therefore, the first next step is to calculate the required investments, payback period and cost price of hydrogen. The extent to which surplus electricity can be used certainly will have effect on these results. We expect that this analyses will give us an idea if energy production is feasible at farm level or it requires cooperation between a group of farms to make it economically interesting.
We hope to present the first results by the middle of this year.