Development and demonstration of energy-saving technologies in agriculture

The energy consumption for agriculture is approx. 10% of the total corporate energy use in Denmark and is therefore a major source of total CO2 emission. This project aims to show that there is great potential for reducing energy use in agriculture. In the project there has been developed a web interface for monitoring energy consumption. This interface gives the farmers an overview of when, how much and where energy is consumed. In the same time farmers can compare consumption with normative values. Equipment that consume out of the normal can easily be detected and repaired or changed.

The project focused on saving energy in pig production, as this is the largest branch of production in farming and also the most energy consuming. The energy consumption in selected herds has been monitored with high accuracy makiing it possible to track down energy consumption, on system level, minute by minute. The energy consumption for light, ventilation and heating systems has been followed in various sections of different farms, to compare the level of consumption. In the project 4 technologies were developed and tested. Here is a brief summary of the results:

- 1) A new EC fan for livestock facilities makes it possible to reduce power consumption for ventilation, with over 50% compared with frequency controlled fans;
- 2) An intelligent shelter for two climate stables was developed to regulate heat in the piglet pens. The system showed a 43% energy saving for heating compared to identical climate stables with normal floor heating;
-3) An hours-based energy management system called Elspot was tested. The Elspot module can automatically activate and deactivate electrically powered equipment according to the energy price. The study found that farms can reduce their spending on electricity by 25% using the Elspot module on a feed mill;
- 4) A web interface for energy monitoring was designed specifically for farmers. This system makes it possible for farmers to monitor their energy consumption at and benchmark this against normative values or new technologies.

The initial goal of the project was to develop and demonstrate solutions that could potentially reduce energy consumption in agriculture by 20%. Since the work was done only with energy saving technologies in livestock production, this corresponds to an energy reduction of 44%. Never the less, it has been shown to be theoretically possible to achieve a reduction of 19% of the total agriculture's energy consumption by just reducing the energy consumption for heating and for electric motors according to reduction potentials found in this project