Power to the canny farmer

Hobart Mercury
Tuesday 26/10/2010 Page: 4

A TASMANIAN farmer aims to use fresh air and "fart gas" to combat skyrocketing electricity prices. A $28.000 Nuffield Scholarship will allow chicken and turkey farmer Rob Nichols to investigate the conversion of manure and chicken guts into gas. Mr Nichols also will investigate wind power. He has already installed a 30m-diameter, 225-kW wind turbine on his North-West farm and is passionate about alternative energy.

Mr Nichols said the turbine, which supplies about half the farm's electricity needs, acted as a security shield against rising electricity prices. He said he hoped the farm, which produces the famous Nichols free-range chickens, could further reduce its dependence on the power grid by producing biogas. The process involves throwing manure, chicken waste and green plant material into a digester, which acts like a giant cow's stomach. It gives off "fart gas", mostly methane, which can be burned to produce heat and electricity. The solid by-product is nutrient-rich, doesn't smell and can be used as fertiliser.

Mr Nichols said the scholarship would enable him to study the process in Germany, where entire farms have been dedicated to energy production, and Denmark, which pioneered wind and bioenergy decades ago. He said he was convinced that there were opportunities for energy production on Tasmanian farms, depending on how Federal Government incentives panned out Mr Nichols said he also saw potential for energy crops, such as grass to be grown for the digesters. "I see the home production of renewable energy as an industry that holds significant openings for the Australian farming industry", he said. The scholarship will allow Mr Nichols to study animal welfare advances on European poultry farms.