difficult, he decided to make his new farm energy-neutral.
A requirement for the new farm was next to animal welfare. This was one of his choices because investing for the reduction of energy use and producing own energy was subsidised.
Gert was one of the pioneer farmers who became energy neutral at that time. An important point about the farm of Gert is the prospect to stay energy-neutral even if he moves the rest of the old farm to the new location.
He had to invest in many things to become energy-neutral.
He acquired heat recovery techniques, solar panels, plate heat exchanger, energy-efficient illumination, light sensitive switch and frequency controller.
His farm is a splendid showcase of the latest technologies that can be used to reduce the amount of energy that farms typically consume. With an advice of DLV Consultancy, he succeeded in making his farm a net zero energy entity by producing as much energy as it consumes over the course of a year.
Adding solar panels to the roof of his dairy farm creates electricity to offset the energy consumed by the farm.
Energy consumption is important in the Dutch agricultural sector.
The energy costs are relatively high, between 8000 and 10000 euros/year on a farm with 80 cows. Therefore, farmers generally invest in energy saving initiatives.
At a typical Dutch dairy farm, more than 50 percent of the energy is used for milking and cooling the milk. Farmers invest in devices, like heat recovery system to improve energy efficiency.
With a heat recovery, it is possible to generate warm water, using a milk cooling process.
A heat recovery system can recover up to 60 percent of the heat extracted from cooling milk.
Solar panels generate and supply electricity that can be sufficient for the milking and milk cooling systems. On the other hand, a plate heat exchanger can cut energy costs by up to 60 percent by minimising the cooling load on a bulk tank.
It is possible to cut farm energy cost with energy efficient illumination.
Frequency controller gives an opportunity to run the pumps on lower speed. During cleaning, there is a high need of vacuum resource; during milking, a vacuum pump can have a lower speed. A light sensitive switch is energy efficient because it turns on lights when it’s necessary.
Other innovative solutions include heat recovery by manure, wind turbine and micro fermentation.
The heat recovery by manure warmth technique is used to heat the water from warmth of manure that can be used in the house for heating purpose. A wind turbine is used for producing energy.
Through energy saving measures, Gert has been able to lessen his energy consumption to 31,450 kilowatts (kWh) per hour a year, while his net balance kWh consumption is negative 3,550.
For this purpose, he had to invest euro 190,000 and he got 50 percent subsidy for this investment.
The added advantage was considerable reduction in carbon emission.
He said he is much satisfied with the outcome of being energy neutral as it ultimately saves money.
Niek van Grinsven, a representative of DLV Consultancy said his company is a Dutch independent consulting company for the animal sector.
“With over 120 employees, we are the largest consulting agency in the Dutch livestock sector. We offer a great scope of specialism for the animal husbandry,” Grinsven said.
Each year, DLV delivers services to over 4,000 farmers/managers in projects that differ from improving soil fertility, animal production efficiency, designing stables or analysing the impact of governmental policy on chain development.
This consultancy firm has executed multiple projects in the Netherlands, China, Croatia, Germany, Russia, India and Rwanda.