IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ags/arerjl/45662.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Investing in Methane Digesters on Pennsylvania Dairy Farms: Implication of Scale Economies and Environmental Programs

Author

Listed:
  • Leuer, Elizabeth R.
  • Hyde, Jeffrey
  • Richard, Tom L.

Abstract

A stochastic capital budget was used to analyze the effect of net metering policies and carbon credits on profitability of anaerobic digesters on dairy farms in Pennsylvania. We analyzed three different farm sizes—500, 1,000, and 2,000 cows—and considered the addition of a solids separator to the project. Results indicate that net metering policies and carbon credits increase the expected net present value (NPV) of digesters. Moreover, the addition of a solids separator further increases the mean NPV of the venture. In general, the technology is profitable only for very large farms (1,000+ cows) that use the separated solids as bedding material.

Suggested Citation

  • Leuer, Elizabeth R. & Hyde, Jeffrey & Richard, Tom L., 2008. "Investing in Methane Digesters on Pennsylvania Dairy Farms: Implication of Scale Economies and Environmental Programs," Agricultural and Resource Economics Review, Northeastern Agricultural and Resource Economics Association, vol. 37(2), pages 1-16.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:arerjl:45662
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.45662
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/45662/files/leuer%20-%20current.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.45662?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jeffrey R. Stokes & Rekha M. Rajagopalan & Spiro E. Stefanou, 2008. "Investment in a Methane Digester: An Application of Capital Budgeting and Real Options," Review of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 30(4), pages 664-676.
    2. Burtraw, Dallas & Palmer, Karen & Shih, Jhih-Shyang & Siikamäki, Juha, 2006. "Air Emissions of Ammonia and Methane from Livestock Operations: Valuation and Policy Options," RFF Working Paper Series dp-06-11, Resources for the Future.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Cowley, Cortney & Brorsen, B. Wade, 2018. "Anaerobic Digester Production and Cost Functions," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 152(C), pages 347-357.
    2. Key, Nigel & Sneeringer, Stacy, 2012. "Carbon Emissions, Renewable Electricity, and Profits: Comparing Policies to Promote Anaerobic Digesters on Dairies," Agricultural and Resource Economics Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 41(2), pages 139-157, August.
    3. Neibergs, J.S. & Harrison, J. & Whitefield, E., 2013. "PR - Economic Analysis Of Anerobic Co-digestion Using Dairy Manure And Byproduct Feedstocks," 19th Congress, Warsaw, Poland, 2013 345686, International Farm Management Association.
    4. Binkley, David & Harsh, Stephen & Wolf, Christopher A. & Safferman, Steven & Kirk, Dana, 2013. "Electricity purchase agreements and distributed energy policies for anaerobic digesters," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 341-352.
    5. Gloy, Brent A., 2010. "Carbon Dioxide Offsets from Anaerobic Digestion of Dairy Waste," Working Papers 126750, Cornell University, Department of Applied Economics and Management.
    6. Li, Xue & Mupondwa, Edmund, 2018. "Commercial feasibility of an integrated closed-loop ethanol-feedlot-biodigester system based on triticale feedstock in Canadian Prairies," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 401-413.
    7. Lauer, Markus & Hansen, Jason K. & Lamers, Patrick & Thrän, Daniela, 2018. "Making money from waste: The economic viability of producing biogas and biomethane in the Idaho dairy industry," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 222(C), pages 621-636.
    8. Yakubu Abdul-Salam & Melf-Hinrich Ehlers & Jelte Harnmeijer, 2017. "Anaerobic Digestion of Feedstock Grown on Marginal Land: Break-Even Electricity Prices," Energies, MDPI, vol. 10(9), pages 1-21, September.
    9. Key, Nigel D. & Sneeringer, Stacy E., 2011. "Climate Change Policy and the Adoption of Methane Digesters on Livestock Operations," Economic Research Report 102758, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    10. Borchers, Allison M. & Xiarchos, Irene & Beckman, Jayson, 2014. "Determinants of wind and solar energy system adoption by U.S. farms: A multilevel modeling approach," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 106-115.
    11. Benavidez, Justin R. & Thayer, Anastasia W. & Anderson, David P., 2019. "Poo Power: Revisiting Biogas Generation Potential on Dairy Farms in Texas," Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 51(4), pages 682-700, November.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Fiala, Nathan, 2008. "Meeting the demand: An estimation of potential future greenhouse gas emissions from meat production," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(3), pages 412-419, October.
    2. Di Corato, Luca & Moretto, Michele, 2011. "Investing in biogas: Timing, technological choice and the value of flexibility from input mix," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(6), pages 1186-1193.
    3. Key, Nigel & Sneeringer, Stacy, 2012. "Carbon Emissions, Renewable Electricity, and Profits: Comparing Policies to Promote Anaerobic Digesters on Dairies," Agricultural and Resource Economics Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 41(2), pages 139-157, August.
    4. Cowley, Cortney & Brorsen, B. Wade, 2018. "Anaerobic Digester Production and Cost Functions," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 152(C), pages 347-357.
    5. T. Chen & M. Liu & Y. Takahashi & J.D. Mullen & G.C.W. Ames, 2016. "Carbon emission reduction and cost--benefit of methane digester systems on hog farms in China," Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 59(6), pages 948-966, June.
    6. Duan, Suling & Adam, Brian D., 2018. "Optimal Timing Of Insect Control In Food Processing Facilities: A Real Options Approach," 2018 Annual Meeting, August 5-7, Washington, D.C. 274061, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    7. Cowley, Cortney & Brorsen, B. Wade & Hamilton, Doug, 2014. "Economic Feasibility of Anaerobic Digesters with Swine Operations," 2014 Annual Meeting, July 27-29, 2014, Minneapolis, Minnesota 170621, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    8. Li, Shanjun & Yoo, Han Kyul & Macauley, Molly & Palmer, Karen & Shih, Jhih-Shyang, 2015. "Assessing the role of renewable energy policies in landfill gas to energy projects," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 687-697.
    9. Joseph E. Aldy & Alan J. Krupnick & Richard G. Newell & Ian W. H. Parry & William A. Pizer, 2010. "Designing Climate Mitigation Policy," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 48(4), pages 903-934, December.
    10. Yakubu Abdul-Salam & Melf-Hinrich Ehlers & Jelte Harnmeijer, 2017. "Anaerobic Digestion of Feedstock Grown on Marginal Land: Break-Even Electricity Prices," Energies, MDPI, vol. 10(9), pages 1-21, September.
    11. Gloy, Brent A., 2010. "Carbon Dioxide Offsets from Anaerobic Digestion of Dairy Waste," Working Papers 126750, Cornell University, Department of Applied Economics and Management.
    12. Calum G. Turvey, 2010. "Biography," Agricultural Finance Review, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 70(1), pages 5-20, May.
    13. DeVuyst, Eric A. & Pryor, Scott W. & Lardy, Greg & Eide, Wallace & Wiederholt, Ron, 2011. "Cattle, ethanol, and biogas: Does closing the loop make economic sense?," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 104(8), pages 609-614, October.
    14. Chad Lawley & Hartley Furtan, 2008. "The Political Trade‐Off Between Environmental Stringency And Economic Development In Rural America," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(3), pages 547-566, August.
    15. Binkley, David & Harsh, Stephen & Wolf, Christopher A. & Safferman, Steven & Kirk, Dana, 2013. "Electricity purchase agreements and distributed energy policies for anaerobic digesters," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 341-352.
    16. Li, Xue & Mupondwa, Edmund, 2018. "Commercial feasibility of an integrated closed-loop ethanol-feedlot-biodigester system based on triticale feedstock in Canadian Prairies," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 401-413.
    17. Bartolini, Fabio & Viaggi, Davide, 2012. "An analysis of policy scenario effects on the adoption of energy production on the farm: A case study in Emilia–Romagna (Italy)," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 454-464.
    18. Robert C. Anderson & Alfons Weersink, 2014. "A Real Options Approach for the Investment Decisions of a Farm-Based Anaerobic Digester," Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics/Revue canadienne d'agroeconomie, Canadian Agricultural Economics Society/Societe canadienne d'agroeconomie, vol. 62(1), pages 69-87, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:arerjl:45662. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nareaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.