Production of renewable energy in agriculture: current situation and future developments

The role of agriculture in the field of energy is part of a wider framework of services that can it can provide to the community, integrating the concept of multifunctionality that has been attributed to it. Without forgetting that agricultural activity represents an excellent opportunity to protect the territory, the production of agro-energy could become an opportunity for farmers, who would find new outlets, not only for their crops, but also for by-products and agro-livestock waste/slurry. The energy potential of a rural area through the use of biomass produced in by agricultural activity will now investigated in depth: we will therefore describe the agro-energy production chains using biomass specifically, while ignoring other technologies (primarily photovoltaic and solar thermal) that can be developed, even with a profit, by the farmer, but which are not directly related to the traditional activity of a farm. In conclusion, it can be considered - with the caution we must exercise in processing data of theoretical approaches - that in the future, the entrepreneur will have interesting opportunities for plants with different power capacity in the context of scenarios that use biological products, in particular manure. In addition, the operating margin that can be obtained also allows us to consider the possible expensive supply of biomass, in the case where the installed power is to be increased. Conversely, the risks run will be serious if the system is to be powered exclusively with dedicated biomass, especially with cereal silage.