Agriculture in Canada
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Review of Past Renewable Energy Initiatives under the ERDAF program of Agriculture Canada
This report is a review of past initiatives undertaken by Agriculture Canada's Energy Research and Development in Agriculture and Food (ERDAF) program experiences. The ERDAF program was a contracting out program estimated at about $15 million of which about half (90 projects) addressed renewable energy. Initial program efforts focused on assessing R&D needs and potentials, and establishing priorities and energy production and utilization possibilities. A very broad approach was taken in the program because agriculture also benefits from advances made in other sectors and agriculture has the potential to make a net energy contribution. The program addressed issues on Resource Assessment, Energy Crops and Liquid Fuels production from biomass feedstock. Solar and Wind energy were also explored for use on the farm.
The main lessons learned from the program can be summarised as follows:
- Canadian farmers are astute businessmen; they run their farms like a business. Whenever new concepts or opportunities present themselves there are always farmers who will analyze the opportunity and invest if they feel the economics are favourable. Farmers readily share their experiences with their neighbours and colleagues; a successful venture is soon adopted by others. Provincial extension services have in the past been helpful in transferring information and helping farmers establish new ventures. Today the Internet provides a valuable mechanism for providing information to farmers, virtually all the progressive farmers use the Internet. If the opportunities indicate a reasonable return, the Canadian farmer readily embraces them. Economics was the major reason that technologies ERDAF supported did not get greater acceptance.
- One of the major accomplishments of the ERDAF program was that no major energy investments having unfavourable consequences were undertaken in the agricultural industry. Many of the renewable energy systems involved a trade off between energy and labour, as the relative price of energy dropped so did the enthusiasm for the use of renewable energy as it was no longer competitive.
- One of the original objectives of the Agriculture Canada program was to achieve energy self-sufficiency on the farm. It was found that anaerobic digesters can be operated year round in Canada's cold climate and the biogas produced can readily be used for space heating or generating electricity. Because of our climate and the requirements of anaerobic digestion, the process needs supplemental heat in the winter. The biogas can be burned directly or waste heat from the production of electricity with an engine generator set can be used. It was found that there is still enough energy left for space heating of a residence or workshop in the middle of the winter. The overall energy balance is very favourable, especially if cogeneration is employed. Sufficient biogas is produced to provide supplemental heat to maintain the digestion process in the winter and for a farm to be almost self-sufficient in the production of electricity.
- On liquid fuels, it was concluded that the main limitation for agriculture to produce liquid fuels or reduce its dependency on liquid fuels was still economic involving either the high capital costs of the processing equipment or the feedstock costs. The technology to produce and use alcohols was readily available, however the agricultural feedstock proposed were often usable food or feed with the highest economic returns from this end use. The resurgence of alcohol fuel production in North America and more recently in Canada was considered to be due to economic incentives provided by governments.
Modified: 02-19-2008
