I should make a point of stating that the economics behind biodigesters are great in the UK because of the country's energy infrastructure. If our farm was in North America, LPG would be a far cheaper source of energy, and a farm there could never justify the economic cost of biodigesters. In the same way, our farm could not justify the massive tractors that are used in the US, our farm is too small.
The reason I say this, is you have to be conscious of your environment when making economic decisions. I never understood Germany's passion for solar power. If you ever travel to Northern Europe and Germany in particular, you will notice two things, in winter the nights are long and the days are short, and even in the summer there's not much sun. Probably the worst place in the world to install solar panels, and yet...
People make uninformed economic decisions all the time. Not only private players but public ones too (e.g. UK government's handling of Brexit). We derived "unearned economic" benefits from the UK government's actions. We would be foolish not to maximize our benefits when people do something stupid.
Another example of stupidity, the Tories (anyway my local MP mentioned this last Thursday) are considering a "giveaway" to producers of renewable energy, like us. When I pointed out that for our farm, the economics of feeding the grid just didn't make sense, he dismissed my concerns. He just didn't get it. We already acquire manure from three local intensive farmers to feed our two biodigesters, because our farm doesn't produce enough (plus we like chicken manure for direct application in our leafy production high tunnels). As we expand our herd in 2024 and 2025 that may change, but even then it is unlikely. Also, we would never consider using "subsidies" to make long-term capital allocations. A change of government (or even policy) could completely change the economic outlook of a project.
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