The Federal Agency for Agriculture and Food in Bonn, Germany, announced on January 8, 2020, that with immediate effect, projects for the promotion of energy-efficient greenhouses, storage and initial processing, which have been applied for after January 18, 2020, will only be supported if neither coal nor oil is used as fuel. This means that support will be limited to projects based on integrated energy concepts based on renewable energy sources or using gas as a fossil fuel.
The BLE message is (extract):
New buildings and plants whose thermal energy demand is covered on the basis of coal or oil are no longer to be subsidised. For this purpose, number 2.1 paragraph 1 of the Directive on the Promotion of Energy Efficiency Measures in Agriculture and Horticulture of 29 October 2018 (BAnz AT20.11.2018 B2) is amended as follows:
1. point (c) shall be worded as follows: "(c) new construction of low-energy buildings for crop production in accordance with point 2.1.3, insofar as their thermal energy demand is not to be covered by coal or oil".
2. point (d) shall be replaced by the following: "(d) new construction of energy-efficient installations for the storage or initial preparation of plant products as referred to in point 2.1.4, in so far as their thermal energy demand is not to be met by coal or oil."
-This adaptation follows the logic that only projects that contribute to CO2 savings are to be supported through public funding. Agriculture and horticulture must cut back 15% by 2030.
The fact that gas will continue to be permitted as a fossil fuel ensures that energy-efficient greenhouses will continue to be promoted. Modern greenhouse technology is the driver that helps horticulture to achieve the savings targets.
Oil for back-up and peak hours is a necessity
The BLE has overlooked the fact that companies that use integrated energy concepts, in which the vast majority (< 80%) of the energy used is biogas, for example, cannot do without oil for reasons of operational safety (back-up in the event of faults) if a gas connection cannot be established at reasonable cost.
I would therefore interpret the wording of the amended directive as follows, since the word "should" is used several times, which means that in justified cases, it is also possible to deviate from the basic regulation. If necessary, this would have to be demanded without fail and should therefore be stated in the directive.
Another question on the Energy Efficiency Directive would be: Why are costs for investment in the use of renewable energy sources excluded from support? This is one of the issues:
- Boilers and storage space for woodchip heating systems,
- Pipelines to biogas plants or other sources of waste heat,
- Combined heat and power (CHP) plants,
- Pumps and controls of heat transfer media.
Switching to renewable energy sources is the key to reducing CO2 emissions in vegetable growing. With the CO2 calculator from CO CONCEPT at www.coconcept.de it can be determined that the CO2 emission per hectare is reduced by 250 t for low energy requirements of around 1,250 MWh and by over 500 t for higher ones, such as cucumbers, with 2,500 MWh. It should be noted that this also saves the CO2 tax of €25 per t CO2 in 2021 and 12,500 per hectare of glass surface. In the following years, the CO2 tax rises to 55 € per t of CO2 .
The BLE message can be found at: www.ble.de/energieeffizienz