Gaining your edge
Energy Edge is an initiative of Greenhouse Canada magazine aimed at turning what is a liability for most growers – fluctuating energy costs – into a competitive advantage. With energy accounting for as much as 40 per cent of the operating costs of many greenhouse operations, small and steady improvements on this front can move the needle in a big way on the bottom line. Energy Edge will look at new technologies, innovative projects, case studies of growers finding their own Energy Edge.
You can read about it in each issue of Greenhouse Canada, but we’ve also created this dedicated microsite. Here you can find regular news items on the subject, new technology and products, video, and in-depth archives on the subject.
We’ll also produce a bi-weekly enewsletter to keep you up to speed on what we’re covering. It is free to all Greenhouse Canada digital subscribers. You can sign up for it here.
If you want to add to the conversation, please drop us a line and let us know about your project, technology, services, or concerns at energyedge@annexweb.com.
You can read about it in each issue of Greenhouse Canada, but we’ve also created this dedicated microsite. Here you can find regular news items on the subject, new technology and products, video, and in-depth archives on the subject.
We’ll also produce a bi-weekly enewsletter to keep you up to speed on what we’re covering. It is free to all Greenhouse Canada digital subscribers. You can sign up for it here.
If you want to add to the conversation, please drop us a line and let us know about your project, technology, services, or concerns at energyedge@annexweb.com.
March 15, 2012
Inside View: December 2010
One Canadian Greenhouse Conference tour this year visited Dean Tiessen, founder of New Energy Farms Group, whose knowledge of biomass is encyclopedic and whose enthusiasm for the venture is contagious. Tiessen’s aim, as reported in the July 2009 edition of Greenhouse Canada, is to provide sufficient renewable biomass to heat his 37 acres of Leamington-area greenhouse tomatoes.
Updating the story so far, the Pyramid Farms’ greenhouse operation consumes about 28,000 tonnes of wood waste per year, but this is a short-term solution to fuel challenges (i.e., changing supply and demand). Tree species (willow, poplar) do not provide the heat output or growth compared to miscanthus. At current Ontario prices, Dean suggested that:
• Fossil fuels cost about $10-11/GJ.
• Waste wood is about $3/GJ but likely to rise.
• Gas is $5.85/GJ.
• Miscanthus costs about $5.25/GJ.
New Energy Farms has a 23-acre propagation crop, providing material for 3,000 acres of contract-grown miscanthus. A fast-growing perennial grass, miscanthus has long been identified as an ideal energy crop.1 It’s already used to produce heat and electricity: Ely biomass power station in the UK “produces 35 MW from biomass, (including miscanthus), sufficient to meet the needs of approximately 80,000 homes.”2 As Dean explained, it is “both economically profitable and environmentally friendly.” In fact, he’s already growing an organic crop.
COSTING
Planted as rhizomes, the crop produces about eight to 10 tonnes/acre dry matter by the third year. At about $60/tonne delivered (providing about 16-17 GJ/tonne), total inputs mean energy costs are about $5-$5.50/GJ. However, as a perennial, miscanthus yields value for maybe 20 years, with almost no further inputs. Tiessen estimates returns for contract farmers will be about $400/acre delivered.
USES
Miscanthus “can be processed into a range of forms from conventional bales … to compacted forms for different energy end users and uses, and be utilized to produce heat, electricity, liquid fuels (bio-ethanol), industrial materials (bio-composites) and agricultural markets.”1 Further, it can be turned into grow bags for as cheap as 21 cents/slab. It has also been extensively tested for packaging and even building applications.2
‘FOOD-VERSUS-FUEL’ DEBATE
Changing land use from food to fuel production is a contentious issue, but Tiessen has his arguments prepared (see New Energy’s website discussion on the U.S. Advanced Energy Initiative1). A recent (U.S.) government-funded study concluded 1.3 billion tonnes of biomass could be produced annually, with one billion tonnes coming from agricultural production without negatively affecting food, feed or export potential. This represents approximately 10 per cent of current farmed area, comparable with wheat.”1 (Remember, though, that miscanthus has many more applications than “just” fuel.)
OTHER OPTIONS?
Growers are always inventive and are finding other ways to generate (and use) biomass. British grower Philip Pearson will soon be operating “carbon negative” trucks run on “eco-fuel” (bio-methane) made from waste leaves and fruit from his tomato crop in an anaerobic digestion system he built a couple of years ago. His first vehicle should be up and running by next summer. “We have made the fuel – we are just making sure that it is of a consistent quality.” All of the greenhouse waste material is fed into the digester, thereby also reducing the company’s annual landfill volumes from 2,500 tonnes of four years ago to 200 tonnes in 2009.3 Ingeniously, Pearson’s system produces a liquid digestate (rather than sludge) and “he has made a deal with the U.K. Sports Turf Research Institute, which, from next year will enable its associations to use the whitish-green liquid as a fertiliser.”3
FULL CIRCLE?
Since 2007, a U.K. supermarket has been powered entirely by electricity generated as a byproduct from a cogen system used to heat local tomato greenhouses. Now, one of the greenhouse companies has built an anaerobic digester to provide some of the fuel, and like Pearson’s system, recycles waste from the greenhouse tomatoes and other fruit and vegetable waste, turning it into methane.4
1 Visit New Energy’s website at: www.newenergyfarms.com.
2 Cantus Biopower Ltd, at www.cantusbiopower.com.
3 “Anaerobic digestion fuel may run vehicles”, Horticulture Week (Oct. 15, 2010)
4 “Innovations by tomato growers help…”, Horticulture Week (Oct. 22, 2010)
Gary Jones is chair of production horticulture at Kwantlen University, Langley, B.C. He serves on several industry committees and would welcome comments at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
Updating the story so far, the Pyramid Farms’ greenhouse operation consumes about 28,000 tonnes of wood waste per year, but this is a short-term solution to fuel challenges (i.e., changing supply and demand). Tree species (willow, poplar) do not provide the heat output or growth compared to miscanthus. At current Ontario prices, Dean suggested that:
• Fossil fuels cost about $10-11/GJ.
• Waste wood is about $3/GJ but likely to rise.
• Gas is $5.85/GJ.
• Miscanthus costs about $5.25/GJ.
New Energy Farms has a 23-acre propagation crop, providing material for 3,000 acres of contract-grown miscanthus. A fast-growing perennial grass, miscanthus has long been identified as an ideal energy crop.1 It’s already used to produce heat and electricity: Ely biomass power station in the UK “produces 35 MW from biomass, (including miscanthus), sufficient to meet the needs of approximately 80,000 homes.”2 As Dean explained, it is “both economically profitable and environmentally friendly.” In fact, he’s already growing an organic crop.
COSTING
Planted as rhizomes, the crop produces about eight to 10 tonnes/acre dry matter by the third year. At about $60/tonne delivered (providing about 16-17 GJ/tonne), total inputs mean energy costs are about $5-$5.50/GJ. However, as a perennial, miscanthus yields value for maybe 20 years, with almost no further inputs. Tiessen estimates returns for contract farmers will be about $400/acre delivered.
USES
Miscanthus “can be processed into a range of forms from conventional bales … to compacted forms for different energy end users and uses, and be utilized to produce heat, electricity, liquid fuels (bio-ethanol), industrial materials (bio-composites) and agricultural markets.”1 Further, it can be turned into grow bags for as cheap as 21 cents/slab. It has also been extensively tested for packaging and even building applications.2
‘FOOD-VERSUS-FUEL’ DEBATE
Changing land use from food to fuel production is a contentious issue, but Tiessen has his arguments prepared (see New Energy’s website discussion on the U.S. Advanced Energy Initiative1). A recent (U.S.) government-funded study concluded 1.3 billion tonnes of biomass could be produced annually, with one billion tonnes coming from agricultural production without negatively affecting food, feed or export potential. This represents approximately 10 per cent of current farmed area, comparable with wheat.”1 (Remember, though, that miscanthus has many more applications than “just” fuel.)
OTHER OPTIONS?
Growers are always inventive and are finding other ways to generate (and use) biomass. British grower Philip Pearson will soon be operating “carbon negative” trucks run on “eco-fuel” (bio-methane) made from waste leaves and fruit from his tomato crop in an anaerobic digestion system he built a couple of years ago. His first vehicle should be up and running by next summer. “We have made the fuel – we are just making sure that it is of a consistent quality.” All of the greenhouse waste material is fed into the digester, thereby also reducing the company’s annual landfill volumes from 2,500 tonnes of four years ago to 200 tonnes in 2009.3 Ingeniously, Pearson’s system produces a liquid digestate (rather than sludge) and “he has made a deal with the U.K. Sports Turf Research Institute, which, from next year will enable its associations to use the whitish-green liquid as a fertiliser.”3
FULL CIRCLE?
Since 2007, a U.K. supermarket has been powered entirely by electricity generated as a byproduct from a cogen system used to heat local tomato greenhouses. Now, one of the greenhouse companies has built an anaerobic digester to provide some of the fuel, and like Pearson’s system, recycles waste from the greenhouse tomatoes and other fruit and vegetable waste, turning it into methane.4
1 Visit New Energy’s website at: www.newenergyfarms.com.
2 Cantus Biopower Ltd, at www.cantusbiopower.com.
3 “Anaerobic digestion fuel may run vehicles”, Horticulture Week (Oct. 15, 2010)
4 “Innovations by tomato growers help…”, Horticulture Week (Oct. 22, 2010)
Gary Jones is chair of production horticulture at Kwantlen University, Langley, B.C. He serves on several industry committees and would welcome comments at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
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Special Series: ‘Show me the money’
You will win the lenders over with a solid financial plan
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Green and burning clean
B.C. grower finds wood pellets a good fuel for his cut flower farm
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Time to review the “S” words
Lenders are looking for projects that demonstrate a secure, suitable, and sustainable supply of biom
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Converting to biomass?
Greenhouse growers in Quebec can learn from a one-of-a-kind training centre
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