Why the Hate for AD?

[Suffolk Serf]

Some examples that I know of.
A 55 acre solar farm, generating 13MW/h at 100%, so probably 3MW/h on average??, taking up 55 acres, and humming along quietly with little or no other inputs.
A 2.25MW/h AD plant, using up to 3000 acres of forage crops, all that lot carted in from miles around and all the digestate carted back out. No waste products used.
Obviously solar production is very erratic and AD more steady, but now battery storage is getting better solar must be better by miles surely?

 

[Flat 10]

Genuine Question.. Why is there so much hate for AD? Especially from within the Agri community?

I'm involved in AD compliance and I do encounter quite a bit of hate about the whole AD industry.

All AD plants within the next few years over here in N.I will be operating under a waste management license and it's going to hit some of them like a train (possibly something for the anti-AD brigade to look forward to over here in N.I ) especially the financial provision that's required for the waste management license. So it is going to change for all of them and they will have to evolve.

I fully understand and agree with that land growing feedstock for AD should not be receiving BPS, but I don't get the competition for land argument, it's a free market to the highest bidder.

You are joking right, this is one of the type of threads I normally fall for. If you work in the industry and spend time on here you must know the answer to your question.

 

[Suffolk Serf]

Some examples that I know of.
A 55 acre solar farm, generating 13MW/h at 100%, so probably 3MW/h on average??, taking up 55 acres, and humming along quietly with little or no other inputs.
A 2.25MW/h AD plant, using up to 3000 acres of forage crops, all that lot carted in from miles around and all the digestate carted back out. No waste products used.
Obviously solar production is very erratic and AD more steady, but now battery storage is getting better solar must be better by miles surely?

And having said that, I can't really blame anyone for taking advantage of the ridiculous system to set up a crop fed AD plant while the lolly was available.

 

[DRC]

It’s been a godsend to many around here . The sugar beet factory closed , but now we can grow beet for AD. Hybrid Rye is also a favourite of ours to grow , and has been harvested on 29th June , 3 yrs running . So hardly the muddy backend. It’s allowed a very good looking crop of OSR to be established after a dose of digestate.
what are we supposed to do, especially on light land, Grow continuous cereals at below cost yields.?

 

[toquark]

Best thing they could do is cut the sub. That’ll soon separate the serious guys from the cowboys.

 

[yellow belly]

if you see the lane near one block of maize round here you will under stand why


growing maize on heavy land in the uk destroys the soil

 

[glasshouse]

It’s been a godsend to many around here . The sugar beet factory closed , but now we can grow beet for AD. Hybrid Rye is also a favourite of ours to grow , and has been harvested on 29th June , 3 yrs running . So hardly the muddy backend. It’s allowed a very good looking crop of OSR to be established after a dose of digestate.
what are we supposed to do, especially on light land, Grow continuous cereals at below cost yields.?

You are lucky you are on aha land

 

[Spud]

Best thing they could do is cut the sub. That’ll soon separate the serious guys from the cowboys.

Do you not think that will encourage hard up farmers to let more to the AD boys at big rents, thereby exacerbating the problem?

 

[PaulNix]

Do you not think that will encourage hard up farmers to let more to the AD boys at big rents, thereby exacerbating the problem?

I took it to mean the subsidies for renewable energy.

 

[sjt01]

Because it is a nonsense environmentally.
(feeding AD from farmland, not AD as a process).

Per acre the electricity yield from PV is far better, although more variable. Where AD comes into its own is when it incorporates wastes, in our case cow slurry, silage from the top and sides of the clamp which is lower quality, whey from our cheesemaking. Also when it utilises the heat, as we do for grain drying, dairy hot water, cheesemaking heat, heating 4 houses, office and workshop. It really annoys me when the big AD operators, moving their silage miles on our narrow roads, then dump all the heat from the CHP (apart from what is needed to heat the digester)

 

[Spud]

I took it to mean the subsidies for renewable energy.

Ah sorry, I obvs took it to mean BPS.

 

[onthehoof]

Why shove grass into a beef animal noone can afford the buy at a price to make a real profit, when you can turn it into subsidised methane to make power for folks Tesla's and iPhones?

Isn’t that just the problem with todays society - cant afford/ be bothered to cook a Sunday roast, but just gotta have the latest iPhone

 

[sjt01]

I took it to mean the subsidies for renewable energy.

Subsidies for renewables are needed to get on a level playing field with fossil and nuclear - there are massive tax breaks for fossil, and nuclear clean up is paid for by government.

 

[teslacoils]

Isn’t that just the problem with todays society - cant afford/ be bothered to cook a Sunday roast, but just gotta have the latest iPhone

It's a problem if it's one in twenty. When it's by far the majority ...... then it's the normal and were the problem.

 

[Scholsey]

Silly question but how many kWh would a 1.5mw ad plant produce a year? I know the answer is in the question but don’t know how to work it out.

 

[Boysground]

I have 2 digesters within a 5 minute drive from me. Neither uses any farm grown crops it is all supermarket and food waste. I don’t think either would start using maize from what they have told me.

Ng

 

[Suffolk Serf]

Per acre the electricity yield from PV is far better, although more variable. Where AD comes into its own is when it incorporates wastes, in our case cow slurry, silage from the top and sides of the clamp which is lower quality, whey from our cheesemaking. Also when it utilises the heat, as we do for grain drying, dairy hot water, cheesemaking heat, heating 4 houses, office and workshop. It really annoys me when the big AD operators, moving their silage miles on our narrow roads, then dump all the heat from the CHP (apart from what is needed to heat the digester)

A perfect illustration of how AD should be slotted into a balanced farming system.

 

[sjt01]

A perfect illustration of how AD should be slotted into a balanced farming system.

We also use electricity to move digestate to the fields

 

[kiwi pom]

I have 2 digesters within a 5 minute drive from me. Neither uses any farm grown crops it is all supermarket and food waste. I don’t think either would start using maize from what they have told me.

Ng

That's how they should be in my opinion, finding a good use for waste.
Growing good crops on good food growing land, right next to a large population that need feeding but using them to produce electricity instead is just madness.

 

[ajd132]

In west Suffolk it is, a very very professional operator (OJ Neil) runs trucks to haul on road and tractors in field so it can be done. Oli wouldn’t do it if it didn’t make him money

Agree with that on oli.
I heard another large operator further west had 9 tractors roll over in a day recently but that could well be heresay