1. Ravello (Italy): June 16 - 19, 2015
    SOCIAL COST-BENEFIT ANALYSIS OF SMALL-SCALE BIOGAS PLANTS IN RURAL 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 , 2015
Authors: Tichaona Pfumayaramba1, and David Tinarwo2 1Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness, 2Department of Physics University of Venda, South Africa

2. Introduction South Africa faces a serious energy crisis.
With a total generation capacity falling short of current demand – there are currently frequent experiences of load shedding
There is still close the 30% of households without electricity the mojority being in rural areas
Rural electrification is necessary from developmental and equity perspectives (Marquard et al, 2007)

3. Intro cont.
It is clear that it will take a while for ESKOM the power utility to meet this demand and expand the grid to non-electrified households
Households without electricity rely on alternative sources to meet their needs – cooking, lighting, heating
Given this scenario, various government agencies have taken an interest in alternative energy sources
Renewable energy – wind, solar, biogas – are all options being explored
Alternatives available to rural households – firewood, LP gas, paraffin, charcoal,
In rural Limpopo small scale biogas plants are being piloted – Dept of physics at University of Venda

4. Current Energy Sources in Study Area

5. Renewable Energy has the potential to address not only the energy needs of rural communities, but it must also can contribute to poverty eradication, public health & environmental sustainability and stimulate economic development.

6. Firewood sales

7. Firewood Usage

8. Limpopo Project
One of the pilot sites is a Women’s Co-operative center running a creche.
Presently firewood worth R is bought from local suppliers every month and used on open fire-three stone stove system to prepare food for the 250 children and the 24 adults working at the co-operative.
In addition to firewood cooking, the co-operative uses up to 48 kg of bottled gas per month - R

9. Biogas Digester Installation

10. Pilot Project Site 3200 layers chicken it rears year round.
Each bird producing about 0,09513kg of droppings per day, [ASAE standard D384.1, 1992] a total of about 304kg of wet manure is produced every day
The center needs approximately 7m3 of gas to completely replace the firewood and LP gas.
2 x 6 m3 fixed dome prefabricated Agama bio-digesters were installed and coupled
Supply one burner in the kitchen about 30 m away. Each digester container can produce a maximum of 2m3 of biogas every day - equivalent to 4 hours of burning time /0.8 kg LPG, or 3.5kWh continuous electrical output.
The biogas is captured and stored within the tank.

11. Socio-Economics of Small-scale Biogas
The purpose is to conduct a cost benefit analysis of the installation of small-scale household biogas digesters when the household incurs the initial investment 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

12. Some Data from one Pilot Center

13. Challenges
Wide spread acceptance of the technology -Need for education for rural customers to understand the technology & 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 and management of records
Valuation of non-financial benefits – public health, environment, by-products
Value added from by-products

14. Thank You