County Waterford, Ireland
Agry Co-Operative Bulgaria
1. Terms of reference
This section of the report referrers to the established co-operative for biomass utilization called “Co-Operative Energy – AGRI” in the Bulgarian North Eastern rural regions. The co-operative was created within the project: “Energy Self Supply in Rural Communities “(ENSRC) financed under Intelligent Energy Europe (IEE) program.
2. Summary and Conclusions
According to the project objectives and activities, an agricultural Co-Operative was established for operation in the rural regions for promotion of the possibilities for biomass utilization as a good opportunity to reduce the energy consumption.
A Business Plan for the Co Operative development was elaborated for the period of 2-3 years. The project had to meet the commercial interests of all the shareholders in the Co-Operative.
An analysis of the possibilities of biomass utilization for the energy needs was made for the “Co- Operative – AGRI”.
An important note is that there is relatively scarce information for the availability of biomass resources and for the precise energy needs in the rural regions.
The proposed strategy for development is as follows:
| Year 1 | Promote installation of biomass. Planning of biomass supply chain using existing sources of biomass. |
| Year 2 |
Planning of appropriate kind of installation and elaborate logistic frame for existing sources of biomass. |
3. Background
Energy Co- Op members are the owners of agriculture land, windmill, greenhouses and the storehouse for grain. The main energy needs are for heating. Currently the heating is provided by boilers, which use natural gas as a fuel. The natural gas is an ecological fuel to certain degree with minimum emissions of CO2. The researches were determined that the heating by natural gas is unprofitable because of the high gas price. Accordingly it was decided to make a choice for cheaper fuel, namely the biomass. Another advantage of the biomass is that it is a local resource, that makes the supply more secure and you can reach lower price at the same time. The raw material is mainly straw, maize-field, sunflower stems and husk, tobacco stems, fruit orchards and vineyards cuttings.
The feasibility studies show that about 30% of straw amounts, 65% of maize-field and about 80 % of another solid farm biomass can be examined for energy purposes.
4. Rationale
Energy dependence:
The amount of energy sources import is indicative for the energy dependence. Bulgaria imports 48 % of its energy sources.
Increasing price of the energy sources:
There has been a dramatic increase in the price of energy sources during the last several years. That stimulates the owners to search for alternative methods for reduction of the energy cost.
Provision of supplies:
Bulgaria is a big gas importer and the local reserves found to-date are of minimum amounts. The gas import comes mainly from Russia. The decrease of gas consumption leads to decrease of the economic dependence on imported energy sources.
a) Strategy - General
“Energy Co Op - AGRI” consolidates its efforts for energy cost reduction in rural areas and it will elaborate corresponding projects.
A SWOT analysis has been made for determination of the economic effectiveness and the opportunity to implement this method.
Internal Strength |
Internal Weaknesses |
Local sourced biomass Environmentally Friendly Farmers are Energy Consumers
|
Lack of knowledge Possible limited supply High cost for a transport Need of storage |
External Opportunities |
Troubles |
General trend towards renewable energy Possible additional income from sludge bio filtration Possibility of additional grants Increasing oil prices |
No external customers Existing and emerging Commercial Biomass heating supplier |
b) Strategy - Economics Analysis
The application of technology for biomass utilization strongly depends on the possibility for grant assimilation. The grant issue is related to the application with a developed project, which is why the project will be elaborated in terms of required financial resources, taking no account whether these resources are private or grant.
Scenario :
Raw materials production of producers ( Self-supply ). According to this scenario the farmers produce straw by themselves, which is necessary to cover their energy needs.
Biomass heating is about twice cheaper in comparison with the heating provided by natural gas.
Biomass advantage becomes even bigger if a grant has been used.
Estimated risk: low/medium
It is important to underline that for biomass heating the boiler; the storage places and the fields for harvest of the straw should be in close vicinity. These conditions are valid only for farmers, which have their own land.
.
