PR - Competitiveness And Risk Of Crop Production, Milk Production And Biogas Production With Respect To Regional Resources (p133-144)

Renewable energies in Germany are strongly supported by legislation. Farmers expect that renewable energy can help them to increase and stabilise their income . In this respect, biogas is an important pillar in the overall context of renewable energies. Feedstocks for biogas plants are energy crops (corn silage) and liquid manure, among others. A multi period farm model with different operation branches (crop production, dairy and biogas production) reflects the interactions and analyses the competitiveness applying Monte Carlo simulation. On a single farm scale, entrepreneurs are well advised to take advantage of the current frame conditions with respect to investments in middle-size biogas plants. Up to now biogas plants are unevenly distributed at the regional level. The competitive advantage of biogas production will bring the corn cultivation area up to the regional limit of the individual agricultural region; as long as frame conditions especially remuneration will not change. At current remuneration the investments in biogas plants are expected to increase further. Appling Linear Programming models for the research area of the German federal state Schleswig-Holstein, it can be stated that the biogas production led to an increase in agricultural value added. Considering the development of income and its distribution in investing in biogas plants, it is possible to point out over-compensation, because rising incomes are not associated with more risk but with less. The cost of the risk of investment was passed by the legislator from the investors to the electricity consumers.