Enhancing production and use of renewable energy on the farm

How to enhance production and use of renewable energy on the farm?

The final report of this Focus Group has been published. 

Find all the information at a glance in the Renewable energy on the farm factsheet.

Tasks:

• Identify the main practical challenges and opportunities posed by the production and use of renewable energy at farm level.
• Identify main practical barriers to sourcing of materials (forest biomass, agricultural biomass - with potential focus on agricultural residues - solar, geothermal and wind), transportation and collection (e.g. on farm, to local biogas plants etc.), transformation to energy, and distribution to farms and on farms as well as to public grids.
• Identify new and best practices and tools that can be applied at farm level to increase both the production and self-consumption of renewable energy in a cost-efficient manner, while ensuring that renewable energy sourcing meets the sustainability criteria.
• Examine the trade-offs between all types of on-farm energy production and alternative uses (food, feed, other non-food).
• Analyse possible synergies between use of various energy sources (agriculture, forest, solar, wind) and demand on farm level (constant and stable supply).
• Propose potential innovative actions to stimulate the knowledge and use of management practices and strategies for improving uptake of renewable energy and provide inspiration and ideas for Operational Groups and other innovative projects.
• Develop collective selling approaches for farm-produced energy – links to economic opportunities for territorial developments and networking activities for dissemination of these approaches.
• Identify remaining research, innovation, advisory and other needs coming from farm level to improve the use as well as the production of renewable energy on farm holdings.
• Provide examples of practices and tools that are already applied, including through better stakeholder involvement and synergies with other sectors such as tourism.