Variable renewable energy penetration impact on productivity: a case study of poultry farming.

Abstract

Abstract Like all current industrial systems, agriculture overwhelmingly relies on energy supply from controllable sources, mainly fossil fuels and grid electricity. Power supply from these sources can be adapted to perfectly match the timing of power requirements of demand systems. The energy transition largely consists in substituting renewable power|which is intermittent by nature|to controllable sources, leading to disconnection between instantaneous power production and demand. Energy storage is a potential solution for balancing production and demand and safeguarding the operating conditions of the demand system. In this paper we quantify the effects of renewable power supply (solar and wind) on the operation of a standard poultry farm. We model the balance of power generation and demand considering the growth conditions of poultry and local weather data including temperatures, wind speed and solar radiation. We assess scenarios of renewable power supply in function of the size of the power plant, the wind-to-solar power generation mix and energy storage, and assess the impact of power supply patterns on the operating intensity (productivity) of the demand system. We show that it is possible to achieve non-negligible shares of renewable power supply with a reduced loss of farm productivity regardless of the energy mix by using small storage capacity. However, a full transition to renewable power supply would require a combination of ( i )-large energy storage compared to the annual demand, ( ii )-oversizing the power production plant, and ( iii ) adapting the energy mix to the timing of the power demand. Storage is all the more critical as production and demand are uncorrelated in time. The ratio of useful to unused energy storage by the end of the year varies with the energy mix and operating intensity (productivity) of the farm. We discuss the implications of different energy configurations on the performance of the demand system.