Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
On-farm renewable energy
up-take to date. Although there has been a rapid proliferation of turbine development
companies, the number of manufacturers producing turbines has consolidated and turbines
are primarily imported from Europe. Total wind energy produced in Scotland increased
from 2,023 GW in 2006 to 8,328 GW
3
in 2012 (Scottish Government, 2013).
At regional level, technological anchoring can be observed in 2006 when Germany's
first biogas (fuel) station (for vehicles) opened in Wendland-Elbetal, initiated by a regional
farmer. From 2009 onward, network anchoring was further advanced by regional energy
management agencies that offered advisory services to businesses, municipalities and
private households, and thus contributed to the spread of renewable energy use. In 2009,
biogas plants accounted for 45% of the total electricity from regional renewable energy
sources and 113% of regional electricity consumption was generated from renewable
sources. Network anchoring is also evident in Aberdeenshire, where there has been a clear
increase in the number of interactions between farmers (informal visits and information
days) and events run by farming organizations. Some of the original pioneers became
hybrid actors, running consultancies to assist other farmers (Aberdeenshire), or sitting on
the council for the Bio-energy Region Programme (Wendland-Elbetal). In Aberdeenshire,
the introduction of FiTs led to an exponential increase in applications for planning
permission to put up turbines in 2010/2011 but a higher percentage of large turbine
applications were rejected, owing to public concerns about regional saturation (visual
impact on the landscape).
Although the three countries thus appear to be on somewhat divergent trajectories,
there is a common shift towards community development concerns and capitalization on
renewable energy production to meet other societal objectives, such as energy tourism
(Germany), community development (Scotland) and local heating (Czech Republic).
Saturation effects are evident in the lack of grid capacity in all three countries and
increasingly expressed through negative public opinion. This is exacerbated by public
perception, in all three countries, that rising electricity prices reflect government subsidies
and are, therefore, benefiting wealthier society members. Cognitive or interpretative
institutional anchorage thus does not appear to have kept pace with normative institutional
anchoring, as is evident in the public protest that has been organized in the last few years.
As a result, all three governments are encouraging more collaboration between farmers and
local communities but with limited success to date.
In terms of technological anchoring, experimentation continues on biogas technologies
(for example on additional substrates and use of waste heat). In the Czech Republic and
Germany, farmers continue to experiment with, and develop, anaerobic digestion
technology. Agricultural technology suppliers are also becoming involved in biogas
technology supply. Farmers are on the executive board of the Regional Action association
supporting the Wendland-Elbetal Bio-energy region. The dependence of biogas on
agricultural products and by-products has enabled farmers and agricultural regime actors to
retain a level of control over the sub-regime and, as a result, these actors are actively
resisting penetration by electricity companies. This is not the case with wind energy, where
the increasing risks of not acquiring grid access or planning permission are more easily
accepted by corporations than by farm businesses (Aberdeenshire is unusual in Scotland for
3
Including a small amount of wave, tidal and solar energy
.
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