SOCIAL COST-BENEFIT ANALYSIS OFSMALL-SCALE BIOGAS PLANTS INRURAL LIMPOPO
Paper prepared for presentation at the 19th ICABR Conference
“IMPACTS OF THE BIOECONOMY ON AGRICULTURAL SUSTAINABILITY,
THE ENVIRONMENT AND HUMAN HEALTH”
Ravello (Italy): June 16 - 19, 2015
AUTHORS: TICHAONA PFUMAYARAMBA1, and DAVID TINARWO21Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness,2Department of PhysicsUniversity of Venda, South Africatichaona.pfumayaramba@univen.ac.za
Introduction
•South Africa faces a serious energy crisis.
•With a total generation capacity falling short ofcurrent demand – there are currently frequentexperiences of load shedding
•There is still close the 30% of households withoutelectricity the mojority being in rural areas
•Rural electrification is necessary fromdevelopmental and equity perspectives(Marquard et al, 2007)
Intro cont.
•It is clear that it will take a while for ESKOM the powerutility to meet this demand and expand the grid tonon-electrified households
•Households without electricity rely on alternativesources to meet their needs – cooking, lighting, heating
•Given this scenario, various government agencies havetaken an interest in alternative energy sources
•Renewable energy – wind, solar, biogas – are alloptions being explored
•Alternatives available to rural households – firewood,LP gas, paraffin, charcoal,
•In rural Limpopo small scale biogas plants are beingpiloted – Dept of physics at University of Venda
Current Energy Sources in Study Area
•Renewable Energy has the potential toaddress not only the energy needs of ruralcommunities, but it must also can contributeto poverty eradication, public health &environmental sustainability and stimulateeconomic development.
Firewood sales
Firewood Usage
Limpopo Project
•One of the pilot sites is a Women’s Co-operative center running a creche.
• Presently firewood worth R1000.00 is boughtfrom local suppliers every month and used onopen fire-three stone stove system to preparefood for the 250 children and the 24 adultsworking at the co-operative.
•In addition to firewood cooking, the co-operative uses up to 48 kg of bottled gas permonth - R900.00.
Biogas Digester Installation
Pilot Project Site
•3200 layers chicken it rears year round.
•Each bird producing about 0,09513kg of droppings perday, [ASAE standard D384.1, 1992] a total of about304kg of wet manure is produced every day
•The center needs approximately 7m3 of gas tocompletely replace the firewood and LP gas.
•2 x 6 m3 fixed dome prefabricated Agama bio-digesterswere installed and coupled
•Supply one burner in the kitchen about 30 m away.Each digester container can produce a maximum of2m3 of biogas every day - equivalent to 4 hours ofburning time /0.8 kg LPG, or 3.5kWh continuouselectrical output.
•The biogas is captured and stored within the tank.
Socio-Economics of Small-scale Biogas
•The purpose is to conduct a cost benefit analysisof the installation of small-scale household biogasdigesters when the household incurs the initialinvestment cost.
•Methodology
–Current household expenditures on energy
–Investment cost for technology
–Saved costs after implementation
–Valuation of health benefits
–Valuation of environmental benefits
–Valuation of by-products from digester
Some Data from one Pilot Center
Challenges
•Wide spread acceptance of the technology -Need foreducation for rural customers to understand thetechnology & wider benefits e.g. public health,environment etc.
•The technology is quite costly for rural households –initial investment cost
•Livestock numbers required to make technology viable
•From research perspective – data collection andmanagement of records
•Valuation of non-financial benefits – public health,environment, by-products
•Value added from by-products
Thank You