Cultivating a New Generation of Renewable Energy Down on the Farm
Greenhouse gas emissions arising from agriculture have been the subject of increasingly heated debate in recent years. But relatively little attention has been paid to on-farm energy consumption and the potential for farm-based renewable energy generation.
And that potential is very significant. The Irish Teagasc Marginal Abatement Cost Curve has established that the cultivation of biofuel and bioenergy crops, along with the adoption of anaerobic digestion and biomethane and other on-farm energy savings, has the potential to account for a reduction of 1.37 million tonnes of CO2 per annum between now and 2030.