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Eight US Journalists Travel to Germany on Informational Tour “From Agro-Farming to Energy-Farming” organized by the Transatlantic Climate Bridge
Eight US and two Canadian journalists visited Germany from October 4 through 10 on an informational tour entitled, “From Agro-Farming to Energy-Farming – the Role of Green Energy in German Agriculture.” Organized by the Transatlantic Climate Bridge initiative, the tour’s aim was to highlight the range of developments in German bioenergy and practical applications in agriculture as well as the policy environment. During the tour, the visiting reporters met with government policy makers, researchers, German journalists, bioenergy cooperative members who’ve made their rural village energy self-sufficient, and local farmers who provide the silage and manure used for biogas production.
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- Organic farmer Erhard Thäle explains why he is switching some of his 2,000 acres over to growing organic bioenergy crops. Beside him is researcher Rachel Michels who has helped create and manage the Ludwidsfelde bioenergy project.
- (© Agri-Pulse.com)
The informational tour kicked off at the Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture, and Consumer Protection in Berlin, with a presentation on implementing energy and climate protection goals in Germany and their relationship to EU agricultural policy. The program also included a visit to the “clearing house” of the Renewable Energies Act, an institution created to resolve any questions or conflicts triggered by the Act’s still evolving regulations. A tour of the city focusing on Berlin’s solar-panel-adorned green buildings and sustainable architecture closed out the day’s program.
The next day, the group visited the Leibniz Institute for Agricultural Engineering in Potsdam-Bornheim where the reporters questioned researchers on their breakthrough work to improve biogas yields – and to improve management practices for crops including hybrid poplar, willow, and industrial hemp. The participants also visited the town of Ludwigsfelde, selected to participate in the federal Bioenergy Regions program designed to revitalize rural areas through developing renewable energy. As part of this visit, the reporters met with cattle and grain farmers – and toured Berlin’s former sewage-treatment fields too toxic for raising food crops but ideal for bioenergy crops.
On the third day, the journalists traveled to Leipzig, in the state of Saxony, where they first visited the Verbio Gruppe’s biorefinery in Zörbig, a plant producing biodiesel and bioethanol, and which will pump biogas into the national natural gas network starting in December. As an added bonus, the Verbio plant’s residue goes back to the farmers as a high-value fertilizer, virtually eliminating the need for fertilizer purchases. Next stop – a visit to the German Biomass Research Center in Leipzig where the journalists toured biogas labs and met with Professor Kaltschmidt who focuses on applied research “to bring bioenergy into the market” by linking agriculture with energy.
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- Dr. Oliver Lüdtke, in blue jacket, standing in front of the black biogas digester tanks and tainless cleaning tank for Verbio’s 40 MW biorefinery due to start pumping cleaned, compressed biomethane into Germany’s natural gas grid this December.
- (© agri-pulse.com)
The fourth day of the tour took the journalists to Kassel, in the state of Hesse, where they met bioenergy experts at the Gut Eichhof agricultural research center, with its dairy and a farm-scale biogas plant. Then experts at the Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy and Energy System Technology explained their work on control systems to integrate renewable energy sources to create a reliable power network by combining wind, solar, biomass and pumped water storage.
On the last day, the participants visited the Jühnde Bioenergy Village in Lower Saxony where the village cooperative has worked with the University of Göttingen and local farmers to successfully create energy self-sufficiency and lower costs. Finally, they toured a large-scale biogas facility operated by C4 Energie AG and E.ON Mitte Wärme GmbH in Hardegsen, before the tour closed with a farewell dinner that evening.
Trip Participants Report
Articles by Jon H. Harsch, Senior Editor, Agri-Pulse (links to PDFs)
1,059-year-old German village has created the bioenergy future
Biogas makes sustainable, reliable renewable energy possible
German villagers, researchers & industry join forces for biomass
Leibniz Ag Engineering Institute develops new biomass technology
Germany calls for global response to combat climate change
Don Wick for Red River Farm Network
Agro-Farming to Energy Farming: A Perspective on Green Energy from the Red River Farm Network
Dan Manternach, Editor& Publisher, Doane's Agricultural Report
Germany leads a Green Energy Revolution in Europe! Applications for the U.S.? [pdf, 89.27k]
