The Agricultural energy transition

Our Swedish food production and so primary production in particular faces a very difficult challenge, as energy use must go from a large fossil energy dependence to a green food production. Primary production means what happens in fields, fields, greenhouses and barns of our farmers. That is, crop production and livestock production until it leaves the farm gate, thereafter food processing takes place.

The Swedish Government's public inquiry SOU 2021:67 The road to fossil-independent agriculture describes how important it is to achieve a green transition quickly.   The report also describes the significant difficulties that this may entail.

The industry itself has declared its ambition via the "Roadmap for Fossil-free Competitiveness for the Agricultural Industry"

There are three items that primarily consume a lot of fossil energy. It is fuel for machinery, heating and drying, as well as the use of mineral fertilizers.

The industry itself aims for fuel and dryer/heat to be 100% free of fossil energy by 2030.

The quota obligation for diesel today means that we have about 29% green admixture. The government's ambition at present is to reach 66% by 2030. This means that Agriculture must move faster themselves and find other methods to be able to reach 100%

There is a great desire in the industry to find ways for the farm to become self-sufficient in energy. This can increase the conditions for resilient food production as well as a more stable and even favorable economy, which is not governed by the energy policy of the outside world.

RISE works actively in these issues and supports the industry in development projects, ranging from agricultural machinery with alternative powertrains to self-production of energy from solar and wind or the production of biogas as some examples.

We believe that hydrogen and/or ammonia will be an important part of the energy transition on farms. This means opportunities to store energy produced by, for example, solar and wind in a warehouse for an entire season, and then converted back into electricity or used in combustion or as fuel for a field machine.

We are actively working on these issues and believe that we will soon have that technology on trial at some very interested farms.

Investigative work carried out by RISE points to a new type of risk management with the new type of technology. The risks are not expected to be greater than in conventional handling of motor fuels, but different.

This is illustrated, among other things, in an investigation by RISE, commissioned and financed by Länsförsäkringar's Research Fund. See link here