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The Energy Network
The Agricultural Energy Platform - The Agricultural Energy Platform The present document described the proposition including the important potentiality between the energetic field and the agricultural field: this plan has been defined by the Energetic Agricultural Platform
Profile of the Agricultural Energy Platform - The Agricultural Energy Platform is developed on a territorial district, with a limited extension, generally not more than 50 km in diameter, within which energy biomass production operates, as well as the whole network of processes and steps needed to obtain the two products of commercial interest: electric energy and heat. Limiting its extension, analyzing Country by Country parameters, is a necessary restriction in order to keep its impact and the costs related to transporting the agricultural product from the producing farm to the processing plant to a minimum. Autonomy, since all operators of the agricultural energy cycle live within the district, is another characteristic of the Agricultural Energy Platform, which can produce electric energy and heat for users within the district and possibly even for the external sale of electric energy. As described, the Agricultural Energy Platform will also be able to harvest and process agricultural residues that have an energy content, produced within the Platform or a short distance away. The expected minimum power of a plant is 7.5 MW electrical and corresponds to an approximate total extension of 1,000 hectares of dedicated land. These sizes depend on several factors:
The plant's performance increases with its power: with 7.5 MW of electricity outputs of 25% are already possible; this level of electricity production can be combined with a heat production of 55%; The thermal power must be adapted to users located close enough to limit the costs of transporting heat in the form of hot water; as approximate size, a modern, residential type area (buildings with several apartments, EU standards) for 5,000-8,000 people is needed; In some cases, thermal power can also be used as processing heat for industrial production, to be determined on a case by case basis;
We must also point out the potential role of the ESCO, Energy Service Company, as financial mediator and for dealings with the banks.
Energy production through biomass - Innovative elements:
Technological-agricultural development due (especially regarding dedicated crops) to the availability of clones that make it possible to grow, in a hectare, twice the amount dry biomass as previously produced, with an increase in density (and the possibility of further improvements, since we are still way below the true potentials inherent in the photosynthetic process); Market advantage: the price of energy has doubled, with a stable tendency towards high values; therefore, the carbon contained in the biomasses can be competitive compared to that of fossil fuels; Financial advantage for the farmer from converting cereal crops, especially corn, into energy crops. Modification of the common agricultural policy towards an agriculture without incentives, but rather guided by the market: in any case, incentives exist at present that are no longer tied to the product and lead the farmer to be influenced by the market for his production decisions
Biomass availability - Biomasses from the waste of the agricultural cycle have proven to be insufficient for significant energy usage; on the other hand, in the past, very little attention has been devoted to biomasses grown specifically for energy purposes. The Agricultural Energy Platform project, instead, sets a specific priority on crops dedicated to energy, taking advantage of technology, as mentioned above the function of harvesting and utilizing waste biomasses will therefore be primary during the transition period of the new plants (with a significant value for those who harvest it and leading the producer to respect prohibitions against field burning), and later complementary, keeping in mind the technological doubling of the per hectare production mentioned above. Secondly, it is absolutely necessary to have, within the Agricultural Energy Platform, a processing plant to transform biomass produced on the field into some other form, for example pellets, which possesses a higher energy content, while being more cost effective transportation-wise and more suited for usage even in ordinary plants that operate with traditional fuels.
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