Green energy turns lights on in Dutch dairy farms

LAHORE: Energy-neutral dairy farms have increasingly become an area of focus for many dairy farmers in the Netherlands with rising cost of energy and growing realisation about global warming issues.
This scribed observed this during a visit to an energy-efficient dairy farm in Dutch countryside.
This trend is also gaining momentum in Pakistan as farmers have started efforts of turning to green energy, which is almost fully solar power in this case. An increasing number of farmers in Pakistan are currently using solar power for pumping water through tubewells. Rising power bills and electricity load shedding forced several farmers to switch to comparatively cheap solar power for meeting their farm energy needs.
In the Netherlands, dairy farmers are primarily opting for their own resources to meet their energy needs in order to become viable, keeping in view the escalating cost of grid power.
Farmers are not only showing interest in solar power but also using several other ways and means to efficiently meet their energy needs.
The dairy farm of an innovative farmer, Gert Vrielink, is one prominent example in this regard.
The dairy farm of Gert Vrielink in a village Benneveld has achieved a distinction of being energy-neutral with the help of DLV Consultancy – a consultant for livestock farmers – of the Netherlands.
Gert told this scribe that he relocated the farm from his village to this new place as he wanted to expand it. As he was going to establish a new farm, he decided to generate energy and reduce energy consumption through innovative techniques.
Moving a farm is an expensive activity, therefore he had to make numerous difficult choices to lower the costs. He decided to keep his young stock at the old location and Gert still lives at the old location. For the diary barn, he also made some choices to save money.
DLV advised him in this process.
Since Gert had to save money for his entire project, which was quite 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.