Renewable Energy
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Pig production can offer other opportunities for generation of renewable energy, both from the animals and the site itself.
Housed livestock produce heat; this is exhausted by the ventilation process and contained in urine and excreta. On all but the very warmest days young pigs require supplementary heating, whilst at the same time exhaust air is expelling heat energy. Opportunities exist for recovering heat from exhaust air by employing heat exchangers; this heat can then be used to either warm incoming air or captured for distribution elsewhere within the unit.
Slurries and manure heaps are another heat source with potential for exploitation using heat pumps. Besides capturing energy, cooling slurry by extracting heat also reduces ammonia emissions so improving the atmosphere in piggeries built over slurry pits.
Heat pump technology and modern manufacturing techniques now mean that both ground source and air to air heat pumps can be a competitive alternative to conventional oil or gas fired heaters in piggeries.
The remote location of farm sites, often with unused land can make them suitable locations for installation of wind turbines to generate electricity.
Farm building roofs with their large often uninterrupted surface areas, are solar energy traps with a potential waiting to be exploited. In mainland Europe it is not uncommon to see farm buildings covered in photovoltaic cells or conventional water solar panels. The potential exists to further exploit solar energy in the UK.
Renewable technologies
BPEX have produced a range of factsheets about renewable energy technologies. Click on the links below to view these:
Further Information
NNFCC (National Non-Food Crops Centre) - the UK's national centre for renewable fuels, materials and technologies
IEA Bioenergy Task 37 - a source of information on biogas production, AD plants and energy utilisation. The Task 37 website contains many useful publications on renewable technologies.
Biogas Upgrading Technologies - Development and Innovations (Task 37 Publication)
Financial assistance
The Enhanced Capital Allowances scheme provides 100% first year tax relief on capital expended on many renewable technologies.
Grant funding may be available from the next round of the Bio Energy Capital Grants Scheme (2010)
Funding is also available for larger renewable technologies through the Rural Development Programme administered by the Regional Development Agencies:
Further information to that provided by BPEX about Climate Change Agreements can be found at: http://www.decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/what_we_do/change_energy/tackling_clima/ccas/cc_levy/cc_levy.aspx .
