[Ryan]

Small projects can absolutely be economically viable; they just require a different range of solutions than large-scale projects.

Collaboration is a key tool for farms close to other farms. Farms can collaborate, either sharing a large digester system or individual digesters, with centralized upgrading for RNG. These collaborative projects are key for regions where small agricultural producers dominate, and developers such as Coop Carbone in QC already demonstrate the success of this model.

Another avenue for remote farms or regions is to pursue CHP and local energy use. Several companies provide small-scale solutions for AD projects.

[Natalia Bourenane]

@davidson_environmental James, do you have any insights?

[James]

Its a tough monetary equation when your small. In the Niagara Falls Ontario Canada area, there aren’t 2 or 3 farms with inputs and close together. Lots of wine grapes here not much else. So I’ve had to look at the economics of 100% food wastes digestor.

[Natalia Bourenane]

Got it. So in the current Ontarian situation, food waste is more interesting than ag waste? Do you think small scale can still develop in Ontario (or Canada) or it is not very viable economically with current available support?

[Ryan]

I’m not sure I would say ADs with ag source materials are less interesting, just that there are additional challenges to achieve a return on investment. Farms in Ontario, on average, tend to be smaller than farms found in other regions of North America, and obviously generate less ag source materials suitable for use in an AD system, making a stand-alone system less economically viable. Supplementing with off farm organic will help increase feedstock volume, as well as provide greater gas production potential than what is typical of ag source materials, but gaining access to a reliable, steady supply can be challenging. Clustering farms together for a single AD is a potential option, but again, the size and number of farms, in addition to the distance between farms presents a different set of challenges, among others.

Ag/farm-based systems do offer some benefits with the regulations around managing digestate as an ag source material vs a non ag source material for beneficial reuse as fertilizer and soil amendment. This can increase to viability of a mixed system, but there are some things that need to be considered such as available land based, storage, transportation, etc.

[Fabian]

It depends. How ones design and build their plant. You need to see where is your blind spot and what is acceptable.? Many equipment for high end plant are just not practical in a mum and papa sort of plant. And when you have capitalist at the fringe flipping projects,, ,you will not see the daylight of your investment. Earlier I have mention about cost of ownership of CHP ,, take very good look at the equipment you are using. Some of them are an overkill. So start with your Excel sheet and see where is you dot are falling at.,, and be brutal with the numbers .. Generally an IRR on paper will have 20 to 40% point droppings once you run the actual numbers. You are welcome to our cost concious project development. This bring me back to the year 1985 when I wanted to look into a mini-lng plant for the depleted well head back then,, there was no way we could break even for the project,, but today we hace one enabler…– whom anglo -saxxon community will tell you otherwise.

[Natalia Bourenane]

@matan_yafe I am tagging you in this conversation as you were interested in the subject

[Natalia Bourenane]

@George I am tagging you as you were interested in this subject