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A CIRCULAR SOLUTION FOR ENERGY RESILIENCE
Recommendations: How do we mobilise Ireland’s Anaerobic Digestion Potential? While it is clear that Ireland has an abundance of untapped potential, immense agricultural resources and potential AD feedstocks, there are numerous constraints relating to financial viability, certainty over feedstock supply, lack of infrastructure, policy, regulatory and legislative barriers, market immaturity, and behavioural challenges.180,181 A wide-scale deployment of AD in Ireland requires the following: » Certainty of feedstock supply & preconditions regarding the operations of AD plants. » Certainty of price of gas for investors through the provision of long-term contracts. » Certainty regarding the planning and regulatory environment. Guaranteeing these levers will require coordination and cooperation among agricultural cooperatives, government policy, and the Irish planning and regulatory systems.
How can Cooperatives and agri-food best contribute? » The cooperative model can enable large-scale commercial and farm-scale AD development and bioenergy production. » Cooperatives are well placed to guarantee feedstock certainty. » The role of cooperatives in rural social and economic development and in the sustainability of Irish agriculture should be grounded in the future CAP.
To date the deployment of AD in Ireland has fallen far short of its full potential. A study on Anaerobic Digestion potential in Ireland revealed 56 potential locations for grid injection equivalent to a 50 million EUR investment. For a large scale AD plant to be economically viable in Ireland it must generate at least 40 GWh of biomethane182. This requires a significant and consistent supply of feedstock, and operational and technical management of the AD plant. Large scale commercial operation will require cooperative involvement. Further, an important supply-side barrier not to be overlooked relates to farmer perceptions around risk and uncertainty of financing developing and running a plant183. Cooperatives offer numerous supports including negotiation power, marketing, funding, operational and technical management, and more184. A cooperative model for AD deployment via agricultural cooperatives would allow for scale and economic viability to be achieved, and the full utilisation of distribution networks. The cooperatives could further ensure certainty regarding feedstock supply, collecting the chosen feedstocks from individual farms. The cooperatives must be aware and plan for changes in feedstock competition costs, as the potential for generating bioenergy may distort feedstock values over time. For example, grass has the same value as fodder, this value increases during shortages. By introducing an alternative use for this resource which would then be valued against energy, there could be inflationary consequences for the monetary value of the feedstock. Cooperatives must foresee for such consequences to ensure consistency and sustainability of feedstock supply.
