With a lot of farmers struggling to get slurry out due to the weather, they’re looking at their slurry tanks reaching the brim in dismay. But there could be another way!
I recently watched a video on Facebook from Malvern Hills in the U.K., where a street light was lit with gas.
“A bit old world perhaps but not that interesting”, was my initial thought and I was going to scroll on, but then I saw a strange contraption attached to the post that asked people to place their doggie poop in and turn a wheel.
I was intrigued enough to keep watching.
It turns out that the light was lit with the gas produced from the poo.
I was flabbergast and thought “What a great idea. I wonder could it work with the manure in the shed! Or even the slurry!
If you could set up that in the shed sure you’d make enough to heat the house! Maybe a few houses! And if you were taking away the gases sure wouldn’t it be safer when it came time to spreading slurry. No chance of suffocating when agitating!”
I thought I was a genius,
“I could be a millionaire”.
So I decided to look it up to make sure no one else had stolen my idea.
Turns out they had, a long time ago.
Ireland, it seems is lagging way behind once again.
I’m beginning to think we’re the backward thinking cousin of the rest of Europe.
All across Europe farmers are availing of Anaerobic Digesters purposely built to turn their slurry into useable Biogas.
Germany has built 8000 of these plants in the past 20 years, while the UK has 600. This U.K number is the one that people are saying Ireland should be aiming for in the next few years, in order to help achieve our 2020 renewable energy targets.
These targets see Ireland aiming to have 12% of our energy from renewable sources by 2020.
What are the consequences for failing to meet these targets?
Fines of 240 Million per percentage missed!
We’re currently well away from meeting them.
Combine this with the calls for Ireland’s farms to reduce their emissions or face possible fines, Biogas seems to be the perfect fit, killing two birds with one stone, if you will.
The biggest supporters of the proposals are not the small groups of “green warriors” as you might expect, but include drinks giant, Diageo.
Diageo have already embraced the technology with much of their gas needs next year likely to be supplied by Green Generation in Nurney, Co Kildare, an anaerobic digester (AD) plant set up by pig farmer Billy Costello.
The €5 million biogas facility is beside one of his pig farms. It is designated a demonstration facility by Gas Networks Ireland, the State-owned Ervia subsidiary supporting development of renewable energy.
Diageo already have a natural gas vehicle that delivers malted barley from its facility in Athy to St James’s Gate, which produces 20 per cent less CO2 emissions than its diesel-powered equivalent.
They have called on the government to follow the lead of the rest of Europe and bring in a Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) to help get more interest in biogas projects.
If we were to follow Europe then farm co-ops could be set up where a group of farmers would come together to supply a medium sized (AD) and gain money from their slurry and manures.
They would then benefit from the extra income.
In Germany 22c per Kilowatt hour of electricity produced is the going rate.
With the amount of slurry and to a lesser extent manure produced in Ireland we would be looking at a possible increase in farm wages as well as a reduction in the carbon footprint from our agriculture.
There are also the extra jobs that such AD plants would create in a declining rural Ireland.
The 240 million we face in fines would pay for 48 AD projects similar to the one found in Kildare.
Surely it’s better to pay this money on improving life in rural Ireland.
It tick’s several boxes of the government plan’s for the country, from supporting agriculture, reducing our carbon foot print, increasing our renewable energy output, supporting rural communities and development, saves on energy cost in the long run and increases farm safety.
It would also put us in line with our European counterparts. I don’t know what you think but I think this would be a wonderful thing for Ireland.
The benefits for the country are obvious and our farming unions need to get out and join Diageo in lobbying the government for investment in this area. Because, though they might say they have no money to do so, we all know that they would somehow find it to pay European fines if we fail to meet our commitments.
This might cost money now but it will help farmers and the country as a whole for years to come. It might not make me a millionaire but has the potential to give a much needed boost to farm wages and decrease fuel costs for the nation.
Incidentally my research has also showed up that you can now get mini AD’s for the home where you can turn your compost into Biogas for your home!
So I’m off to see where I can buy one!
RGA
