The small biogas demonstration project is a European Innovation Partnership aiming to stimulate the deployment of innovative on-farm small-scale biogas production.

Funded by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, the project is being rolled out by the Irish Bioenergy Association (IrBEA) in association with project partners Teagasc, Laois Partnership and Tipperary Cheese

The project will provide support and a capital contribution to three demonstration projects to assist in understanding how biogas can drive sustainability improvements at farm level.

Interest

In 2019, a nationwide series of seven information meetings attended by 461 farmers was completed.

The expression of interest process for those who wished to be considered for the demonstration projects was completed and resulted in 260 farmer applications.

The level of response from farmers confirms the interest in small-scale farm biogas.

In 2020, all expressions of interest received have been reviewed, assessed and categorised based on three criteria:

  • Availability of feedstock on the farm, energy.
  • Demand on the farm or in the vicinity of the farm.
  • Knowledge of biogas production.

    • Demonstration

    Approximately 30 farmers fulfilled the criteria, 100 farmers partly fulfilled the criteria and 130 farmers, due to lack of feedstock and energy demand, were not viable for development of a small-scale farm biogas plant.

    It is expected that each farmer who made an application will receive individual feedback in due course.

    The operational group has begun to engage with farmers who fulfilled all criteria, to develop their proposals further and determine the recipient’s capital contributions.

    Demonstration projects will progress to the planning stage in early 2021 and construction will begin in late 2021/early 2022.

    Further details are available from https://www.irbea.org/farmbiogas/.