KYOTO, Japan — Some Japanese farmers have begun looking to biogas technology to allow them to make their properties into power plants, giving them a way to transform animal and other waste into profits.
Biogas is a combustible substance consisting of mainly methane that can be produced through fermentation of organic materials such as livestock waste or food waste.
The push towards this type of green energy production has been promoted through the government’s feed-in-tariff, or FIT, system introduced in 2012 to encourage the use of renewables following the March 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident.
Under the system, power companies are obliged to purchase electricity produced from renewable sources at a fixed price for a period of time.
But launching a fermentation-based biogas plant requires a sizable initial financial outlay compared with other types of renewable energy such as solar or wind power.
Yet, hopes for biogas power generation are high among Japan’s local governments as it potentially solves the twin challenges of disposal of livestock waste while providing energy to offset the rising costs of established power sources.
In Nagashima, Kagoshima Prefecture, home to about 10,000 residents, roughly 50,000 pigs are farmed, and overcoming the odor emanating from the animal waste has long been an issue.
At the initiative of the southwestern Japanese town government, an energy company was established in July last year, funded by local businesses and livestock farmers.
The company plans to produce electricity from methane gas by fermenting more than 100,000 tons of animal waste collected every year in a sealed fermenter it seeks to build at a local piggery.
“The money that would be spent on energy will now flow into the local communities,” said a senior Nagashima official. “We hope this would help spur on local economic activity.”
The company envisions beginning selling the biogas energy to Kyushu Electric Power Co. as early as in 2018 under the FIT system.
The municipal government is looking forward to a new revenue source and to jobs it expects will be created through the initiative.
As of the end of last November, a total of 179 biogas generation projects were recognized across Japan under the FIT system, of which 85 facilities have begun operations, according to the central government’s Agency for Natural Resources and Energy.
“Unlike Germany and some other countries, its history in Japan is short and the market still has the potential to grow,” an official at the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said of biogas power generation.
Seven government departments plan to throw their financial support behind similar projects.
The energy agency estimates that construction costs of biogas power generation facilities are equivalent to 3.92 million yen ($36,000) per 1 kilowatt of electricity.
That figure compares with 244,000 yen for a solar power station with a production capacity of 10 kilowatts or more and 282,000 yen for a wind power plant with production capacity of 20 kilowatts or more.
Despite biogas being more expensive than other renewable, the Japanese farmers choose it because it provides them with a way to dispose of waste while generating power.
One of the pioneering areas for biogas in Japan is Hokkaido, the nation’s northernmost prefecture which is famous for cattle farming.
In 2015, Betsukai in eastern Hokkaido launched one of the country’s largest biogas power generation plants, in conjunction with Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding Co.
The municipality ferments 280 tons of cattle waste per day collected from about 100 livestock farms. Its annual revenues from electricity production have reached 400 million yen.
Tokamachi in Niigata Prefecture, famous for mushroom production, generates biogas power from waste mushroom beds and Ichinoseki in Iwate Prefecture is set to sell biogas-produced energy from April 2019.
In some municipalities, liquid biogas residues left after the fermentation process are also utilized as fertilizer.
Oki in Fukuoka Prefecture has fermented household food waste for approximately a decade and provides yearly about 6,000 tons of liquid residues to local farmers for use as fertilizer.
–Kyodo
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