One promising solution is turning to renewable energy in agricultural production, not just for the benefit of the environment but also for the farmers themselves.
Not only do renewables help reduce fossil fuels and
thus greenhouse gas emissions, they also offer opportunities for farmers to
diversify their incomes in the long-term, including the possibility to sell the
excess electricity they produce by harvesting solar, wind or biomass energy.
In France for instance, agriculture accounts
for 20% of the country’s national renewable energy production and generates
nearly 1.4 billion euros, according to an ADEME report, which also predicts that
agriculture could produce triple the amount of renewable energy by 2050.
But as farmers face an uncertain future with
disruptions and changes caused by climate change, innovative new solutions are
needed more than ever to widen the opportunities to produce more green energy.
Here is an overview of how renewables are deployed in the sector and how new
paths are opening towards greener agriculture:
Aiming
high with wind, solar and biomass energy
The virtuous link between renewables and
agriculture has already been proven through the harvest of traditional energy
sources such as wind, solar and biomass.
Denmark has the highest proportion of wind power in the world
and its farmers put it to good use.
- Danish startup Nordic Harvest has
partnered with Taiwanese vertical farm tech company YesHealth Group to create a wind-powered vertical farm on the outskirts
of Copenhagen, Denmark, which is set to produce nearly 1,000 metric tons of
greens per year.
- The 75,000 square feet farm runs
fully on wind produced by the country’s extensive wind farms to power its
hydroponic system and 20,000 LED lights, making it 100% carbon neutral.
A study showed that putting solar panels on less
than 1% of the world’s agricultural land could produce enough energy to meet
global electricity demand. That proves the potential of “agrivoltaics” or
“dual-use solar,” a method which consists in developing one area for both solar
photovoltaic power and agriculture by elevating solar panels.
- This allows crops to grow and
animals to graze the land beneath. The panels provide energy for the farmers
while still allowing them to exploit the land, and they also help block the
wind and limit soil erosion.
- Agrivoltaics is on the rise in the United States, where the
Department of Energy will spend $7 million on projects to further develop this
method. In Massachusetts, farmers who harvest cranberries, the state’s
number one agricultural product, are increasingly turning towards agrivoltaics
for extra revenue.
Manure and other by-products generate lots of
challenges for the sector but also offer great energy potential. That is why
many large U.S. facilities have invested in anaerobic digestion (AD)
technologies, which break down organic matter to generate biogas.
- Smithfield Foods, one of the
largest pork product makers in the world, has been putting money into
large-scale AD systems since at least 2014.
- Poultry processing company Perdue
Farms has partnered with Bioenergy DevCo to build an anaerobic digester among other
things.
- “Recent estimates have shown that
turning agricultural waste and excess organics from the poultry industry into
truly renewable natural gas could replace 7 billion gallons of diesel fuel and
generate 70,000 new jobs,” says Bioenergy DevCo CEO Shawn Kreloff.
Harvesting
resilience with offgrids solutions
In sub-Saharan Africa, decentralized renewable
energy installations are key for farmers to build resilience to climate change,
but the costs of such structures can be an obstacle for small-scale farmers.
That is why some African startups are working on creating more accessible renewable solutions.
- Kenya’s SunCulture sells an
entirely solar-powered drip irrigation system as well as clean energy solutions
tailored for smallholder farmers, with a “pay-as-you-go” financing model, which
help the latter acquire these installations more easily. “It’s in our best
interest as a business for our systems to be working so that our customers are
earning the income to pay us back,” says Sunculture chief of staff Mikayla
Czajkowski.
- JUMEME in Tanzania is developing mini-grids in
rural areas hand in hand with low-income communities and embedding them in
local economies. With its pilot project KeyMaker Model, the company’s mini-grid
helped support the local fishing industry by allowing fishermen to process and
freeze their catch on-site using power they didn’t have access to before. The
company has 12 such installations in operation in the Lake Victoria region and
plans to finalize another 11 mini-hybrid solar arrays in northwest Tanzania.
Cleaner
fertilizer with green ammonia
Ammonia (NH3) is a pungent gas largely used in
agriculture to make fertilizers, but its production is the world’s third
largest emitter of carbon dioxide with half a billion tons of CO₂ released
every year. Now green ammonia is emerging, with a renewable and carbon-free
process.
- While ammonia is conventionally
produced using natural gas as a fuel, its green pendant can be made via
renewable energy sources such as wind, solar power or hydro-electric turbines,
decarbonizing its production process.
- The potential of green ammonia is
vast, as not only can it be used as fertilizer, but it can also serve as a
hydrogen carrier, to store energy or as a fuel.
- In the United States, the
University of Minnesota, with the Department of Energy, is overseeing a large
network of green ammonia research projects. One combines green ammonia with distributed wind (turbines installed at or
near the point of end-use such as factories or farms): deploying electricity
from wind turbines to run an ammonia production system from water and air.
Farmers could make their own fertilizer and fuel while generating renewable
electricity for use on site.
- Norwegian chemical company Yara has recently announced a “historic
full-scale green ammonia project” with plans for 500,000 tons per year of green
ammonia production, with shipping, agriculture and industrial applications.
- “We see a clear opportunity to
contribute to sustainable agriculture, while at the same building new business
for both farmers and for Yara. As an example, we can directly address 70% of
corn crop emissions with optimal crop nutrition and soil health measures,” says
Terje Knutsen, EVP Farming Solutions.
ENGIE
Expert Eye
Camel
Makhloufi and Nouaamane Kezibri, research engineers at the Hydrogen Lab at
ENGIE Lab CRIGEN, see potential in coupling renewable
energy to the production of green ammonia: “There is great interest both in the
scientific community and among the major industrial players working in the
fertilizer, ‘heavy mobility’ and energy sectors. Renewable ammonia could be
used to reduce the indirect emissions which are associated with the production
of nitrogenous fertilizers, by replacing fossil raw material with a renewable
electricity source. In addition, ammonia can contribute to cutting the direct
emissions released by the agricultural activity, thanks to its use as an
alternative fuel for agricultural machinery, for example.”
