Master's assignment
Student: Sytze Buruma
Supervisors: Gerard Smit, Gerwin Hoogsteen, and Martijn Schoot Uiterkamp
Programme: Sustainable Energy Technology - University of Twente
Finished: January 2020
Dairy farmers consume a considerable amount of energy. For example the milking machine, lighting, heating but also a tractor. Just like all other companies in the Netherlands, Dairy farmers will and must start to consider running their business in a sustainable manner. it would require a tremendous investment, and the sunk investments in the current farm would be lost, when a farmer would build a new farm to meet the sustainable demands. Therefore it is much more likely that farmers will slowly evolve to a sustainable business. This brings us to the main question for this research:
How should a dairy farmer evolve its farm to generate and use its own energy throughout the year and become as close as economically is viable independent from the gas and electricity grid in 2035?
This question is researched in three parts, by also taking the economics into account:
- First, profiling all the energy consumers. Which systems require energy? How much energy do they require? When do they require energy and is there flexibility in the energy requirement? For example cooling equipment uses a certain amount of energy to bring the milk at the desired storage temperature. In itself the power demand of the cooling equipment is not flexible, but when there is a cold buffer in the equipment it gives an amount of flexibility in fulfilling this energy demand.
- Secondly, investigating which energy sources could be used to meet the energy demand. Examples for energy sources are solar panels, wind turbines, a digester with a combined heat power unit and a heat pump. These sources have to be selected in such a way that they naturally balance the energy demand as close as possible.
- Thirdly, balancing the supply and demand. Possibly by adding energy storage capacity. The farm should become close to self-sufficient, thereby almost independent from the energy grids.
A flexible simulation model of the energy systems will be built in DEMKit. Which is a flexible smart grid simulation and demonstration platform based on Python. To make the model applicable for a large variety of dairy farmers there should be analyzed which parameters have a considerable influence on the energy balance. These should be made flexible in the simulation model. The foundation Anpak’n initiated the research question and provides a connection to a real life farm in Markelo. This farmer has solar panels, heatpipes and is in the process to get a wind turbine and a flow battery installed. The farm and a literature study will be the basis to answer the main question and build the simulation model.