Farmers are keen to use their manure more sustainably, for example by extracting green gas from it. But for the time being they are not making any progress, because the granting of permits for this is completely at a standstill.
This concerns the construction and commissioning of mono-manure digesters. These are large installations that extract green gas from animal manure. In this way, livestock farming can make society less dependent on fossil fuels and therefore contribute to achieving climate goals.
Other benefits: farmers earn money with the gas they sell to the grid and methane and nitrogen emissions are reduced. But the last word has not yet been said about nitrogen; much is still unclear about this.
Farmers must contact the municipality for a permit. If a mono-manure digester can also influence a Natura 2000 area, the province will also be involved for a permit.
But no farmer currently has an application pending with the province. This is due to a ruling by the Council of State at the end of last year, which has made it more difficult to obtain a nature permit.
“As a result, the entire business activity must be reassessed for a new permit application,” a provincial spokesperson explains. “This is a reason for livestock farmers not to submit a permit application to us at this time.”
The province’s coalition agreement states that Drenthe is committed to the production of green gas. But the energy transition in this area has come to a complete standstill, the Provincial Executive recently concluded.
One of the farms that wants to but is not allowed is that of the Duiven family from Dwingeloo. They milk more than eight hundred cows and want to invest in a mono-manure digester. The municipality of Westerveld had already agreed to the plans, but lawyer Geert Starre of the Nature Conservation Guard from Meppel put a stop to it.
Starre felt that the municipality of Westerveld had made mistakes in the assessment. He stated that a digester may burden the environment and went to the administrative court.
The judge largely agreed with Starre’s story and ruled that Westerveld had not substantiated the decision well enough. The municipality should have made it clear that there are no ‘significant consequences’ for surrounding Natura 2000 areas at Duiven’s company.
Much remains unclear about the environmental effects of manure digesters. An example: if too much pressure builds up in the digester during a fault, the excess gas is burned by means of a torch. According to Starre, this releases sulfur and ammonia. The consequences for vulnerable nature have never been investigated.
And that is necessary, because Natura 2000 areas are already at their maximum of what they can handle in nitrogen. Westerveld did not appeal.
Farmer Henk Duiven’s investment will therefore not go ahead. “It’s a shame,” says the dairy farmer from Dwingeloo. “It could contribute to nitrogen reduction and it could also use a large part of the methane from the manure, which would otherwise go into the air.”
The municipality of De Wolden is one of the Drenthe municipalities that has expressed its ambitions in the field of energy transition. She eventually wants to have her entire gas network filled with green gas. That is why projects with mono-manure digesters are supported. “We have made a lot of official capacity available for this,” says a spokesperson.
However, farmers in Natura 2000 areas are at a loss, the municipality notes. “Many entrepreneurs do not know where they stand and how they can make their agricultural business operations in combination with mono-manure fermentation future-proof.”
De Wolden points to national and provincial policy. “Ultimately, the majority of the initiatives will only become clear once there is a guaranteed package of measures from the national government and once clear frameworks and objectives have been established from the province,” said the municipal spokesperson.
The province has announced that it is working on a ‘guaranteed approach for nitrogen reduction and nature restoration measures’. The judge is also not finished with mono-manure fermentation. The Northern Netherlands court has asked for an expert report from the Administrative Jurisprudence Advice Foundation.