Bioenergiedorf

The Bioenergy Village – Ecological, Economical and Social Aspects

 Project Description

The central aim of the project is to switch the electricity and heat supply in rural areas from conventional to biomass energy sources. This is realized as a lighthouse project by the active participation of the population of the village Jühnde (Southern Lower Saxony), which is the first “Bioenergy Village” of Germany.

Our scientific team from the universities of Goettingen and Kassel has initiated that project and actually analyzes the ongoing ecological, economical and social changes. Our long term goal is to develop social, technical, ecological and agricultural knowledge necessary for extending the bioenergy concept to other interested villages.

Why we propose biomass as a renewable resource? Biomass has several advantages compared to the direct transformation of solar and wind power: In contrast to these, Biomass is storable and continuously available and can be converted to energy as required especially in the base and middle load energy range.

Our technical concept consists from three main components: (1) Electricity and space heat will be produced by burning biogas in a combined heat and power generator (CHP). Biogas is generated from biodegradable organic matter in an anaerobic digestion plant. In our pilot project, only liquid manure and cultivated crops are digested enzymatically by micro-organisms under anaerobic conditions. The heat output of the CHP is partly used for the digestion process.  However most of the heat can be applied for space heating and hot water demand of village households. In this way, renewable fuels can replace fossil fuels like oil, gas, coal and nuclear power as energy sources.

(2) In winter time, additional heat energy is necessary and will be delivered by a central heating plant fired by locally produced wood chips. (3) The heat energy from both plants is fed into a hot water pipeline connected with the houses in the village. The heat transfer occurs by exchangers replacing the individual heating systems. The reliability of the whole system will be very high.

The economic basis of the project is guaranteed by the majority of the village   households, which trust on the planned concept and voluntarily decided to get their heat demand from the central plants via pipeline.

Project Targets

Climate protection

The reorganisation of our energy base to renewable resources save the rare fossil fuel resources and reduces at the same time greenhouse gas emissions (CO_2, CH_4, N₂O). CO₂-emissions can be reduced by 60 % per capita in the bioenergy village. CH₄ and N₂O and NH₃ emissions are reduced by an efficient use of liquid manure as energy source.

Soil and water protection

Environmentally friendly cultivation concepts for energy plants like maize, triticale and sunflowers, should minimize soil and ground water contamination by nitrates, phosphates and pesticides and prevent soil erosion.

Biomass cultivation with high plant diversity

The entire biomass may be utilized for energy production. Both cultivated and non-cultivated plants can be tolerated and mixtures of species and varieties are feasible. Consequently, the cultivation of energy crops can be accompanied by an increase in plant diversity.

Decentralization of the energy supply

The energy plants can be planned, built and operated by local companies or cooperative societies (e.g. farm cooperatives) within a short time. Decision competences are returned to the rural supervision and management. This “Bioenergy Village” concept is although suitable to decentralise the electricity supply. Parallel to the hot water pipeline an electricity grid can be laid out to households. Even remote villages can be supplied with electricity without the need of long transmission lines.

Impulses for the rural economy

Farmers are able to establish an economic base in addition to the food and feed production by supplying bio-energy resources such as liquid manure, crops and wood. Furthermore the implementation of small and medium sized enterprises strengthening crafts and trades. They also provide an impulse for various industries, e. g. electrical and mechanical engineering, metal industry and building industry. New jobs are created in the rural area. The agricultural economy will recover and promote a sustainable regional development improving the social and economic cohesion within a community.

Strengthens the foreign trade balance

The use of domestic energy will reduce the dependency on fossil energy sources from foreign countries. This will strengthen the foreign trade balance and, more important, reduces the risks for world wide conflicts resulting from limited fossil energy resources.

Participation

All citizens have the opportunity to participate on planning and implementation of the project. Suitable methods to motivate people and to get consensus in decisions are adopted.

Individual well-being and life culture

Due to the joint accomplishments during planning process, implementation and operation of energy plants the individual well-being and the life culture of the village community most likely will improve.

Transfer

Based on the scientific analyses of the ecological, economical and social changes in the pilot project, concepts will be developed for transferring the implemented mode of sustainable energy production to other suited villages in Europe and worldwide.

Further Perspectives

Suitable concepts for hot climatesHeat energy from the plants can also be transformed by special absorption cooling machines for air conditioning. This possibility broadens the application for countries with high cooling demands.