On-farm anaerobic digestion uptake barriers and required incentives: A case study of the UK East Midlands region

On-farm anaerobic digestion (AD) can deliver renewable energy, improved management of farm wastes and the production of fertilizer, offering cost-savings, environmental improvements and potentially also revenue generation. The research reported here provides an in-depth exploration, in the UK's East Midlands region, of the factors behind the limited uptake of on-farm AD, compared with other on-farm renewable energy sources, and what stakeholders would like to see to change this. Data collection has been undertaken in three stages - a questionnaire sent to farmers, 18 interviews with stakeholders from the industry and policy sides of the AD debate, and a stakeholder workshop. The many barriers identified were grouped into political & institutional, AD awareness, and economic & technical. A range of incentives and policy responses are identified to increase on-farm AD uptake, notably coordinated information gathering and dissemination, streamlined planning processes, improved access to finance, and stable policies. Crown Copyright (C) 2020 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.