| In recent years, energy supply has become a highly relevant issue and a business risk for agricultural enterprises. One form of operational risk management is to make the business as energy self-sufficient as possible. In this project, the technologies available on the market for solar power production, storage and use, as well as operational measures (e.g. flexibility measures in efficiency and load management) were examined in terms of their technical and economic suitability for promoting energy self-sufficiency. In addition, the potential of these approaches was analysed among farm managers of various types of farms, and a business management tool for energy consulting was developed. This included stakeholder workshops, a survey of farm managers and the development of an interdisciplinary tool.
The results show that pig and poultry farms in particular are highly aware of the need for energy self-sufficiency as part of risk management. At the same time, these farms demonstrate a high implementation rate and acceptance of flexibility measures, such as adapting work processes to electricity production and consumption. The opposite is true for cattle farms. In conjunction with increasing technological possibilities, there is great potential for these farms to increase their energy self-sufficiency.
In order to optimise the operational energy self-sufficiency of these farms both economically and technically, farm-specific advice and farm-specific and location-specific optimisations are of great benefit. The farm-specific parameters developed as part of the project, combined with the tool developed, can provide support in this regard. |