Farm Level Economic, Environmental and Transport modelling of alternative feedstock solutions for regional anaerobic digestion plants in Ireland (FLEET)

Project Description

Currently the cost of on-farm Anaerobic Digestion (AD) technology in the Irish context is considered prohibitive for the typical Irish farm size (32.4 ha). This means for most projects, animal manures and crops would have to be transported from farms to a central regional AD unit. This would add to the cost of energy production from this system. This project seeks to examine how the costs of AD technology suitable for deployment in Ireland can be reduced by looking at alternative feed stock solutions. Using Teagasc, National Farm Survey (NFS) data, economic, environmental, and transport models, will be used to examine alternative scenarios for farm scale feedstock solutions for supply to regional Anaerobic Digestion (AD) facilities. Economic models will be used to examine the costs and benefits of alternative feedstock supply to regional AD plants. Environmental models will be used to examine the environmental sustainability of alternative farm scale feedstock solutions which will be supplied to the regional AD plants. In addition, transport models will be used to identify possible feedstock volumes at a regional level. The aforementioned, farm scale economic, environmental and transport models will be aggregated and used to evaluate potential national economic and environmental trade-offs of alternative feed stock solutions. FLEET aimst to identify economic and environmental impacts at farm, landscape and national levels, associated with different farm scale feedstock solutions for supply to regional AD plants. The research results have the potential to provide a range of economic, energy, climate, environmental, social and economic benefits to a wide range of stakeholders.