In the south of Germany, growers are looking for alternatives to natural gas. The recent war in Ukraine only makes the importance of that search clearer. The regional broadcaster for German Bavaria, BR24, focuses on the energy crisis in greenhouse horticulture and gives the floor to fruit vegetable grower Peter Höfler and tomato grower Rudolf Dworschak from Nuremberg.
Biomethane
That first cultivation using two CHPs, one of which currently runs on biomethane. Peter points out that the time of growers burning coal is largely over in Germany. He himself obtains natural gas in collaboration with colleagues, but he also uses the natural gas alternative biomethane. He uses the heat (and CO2) in his cultivation, and he now supplies the electricity back to the grid. In the future he wants to use the electricity at his own company.
Biomass
Colleague Rudolf Dworschak grows tomatoes according to Bioland guidelines on 2 hectares. The greenhouse will only be heated with natural gas from March, in line with the guidelines of the grower association. The grower, an organic grower, sees his conventional colleague harvesting by then. It has used 12 million kilowatt hours of natural gas so far. He wants to replace half of that with biomass. This way he can grow almost all year round, from February to November, within the Bioland rules.
Biomass is not without controversy. Just like in the Netherlands, there is also criticism of biomass in Germany, partly because of air pollution. That is why, in the more distant future, wind energy and photovoltaic energy generation, for example, are also being considered.
Source: vegetablenews.nl
