The Pig Farm Nemščak is one of the ten food producing companies associated in the Slovenian Panvita Group. In 2005 the Group established a special company – KG Rakičan–Ekoteh – in order to undertake the project of the construction of a biogas plant. The main purpose of building the biogas plant was to treat the animal by-products from this farm and from the other Panvita Group companies as well and to utilise the energy in an environmentally friendly way. The project was an upgrade of the pre-existing biological water treatment plant at the farm.
The plant is in operation since July 2006.
The project covers a local area, but the electricity produced is sent to the national grid.

TECHNOLOGY

The fermentors of the biogas plant use a daily amount of 240 tonnes of organic substances (70% of animal origin, 20% of corn (plant and ‘fruit’), 10% other organic origins) for the biogas production. 11 700 nm³ of biogas is produced per day. The biogas is used for producing heat (for heating the farm complex and the biogas units) and green electricity, which is sent to the national grid. As the plant has the status of qualified producer of electricity, it falls under the feed-in-tariff system.
The installed capacity of the cogeneration unit is 1.5 MW, annually 10.2 GWh of electricity is produced (this amount covers approximately the electricity needs of 2 500 households).
As a by-product 13 000 tonnes of organic fertilizer are also produced annually.
The lifetime of the installed capacity is 10 years for the equipment and 30 years for the buildings.
As project partner, GH Holding d. o. o. Ljubljana was also involved in the project.

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ENVIROMENTAL EFFECTS

The decrease in CO₂-emissions due to biogas utilisation is 9 000 tonnes/year.

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SOCIAL EFFECTS

The population was informed about the project through a city council meeting and public disclosure of the project plan. Six new permanent jobs were created as a direct consequence of the investment.

Interested members of the public can visit the project site. The project owners regularly take part in various awareness raising and information sharing events and promote the project at these events.

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ECONOMIC ASPECTS

The investment was financed by the investor’s own resources and a loan from the Environmental Fund of the Republic of Slovenia (6 422 000 EUR). The total investment costs were almost 8 300 000 Euro (2 billion tolars).
The payback time of the investment amounts to 11 years.
The fact that the pig farm does not have to pay for the treatment and disposal of animal wastes results in financial savings as well as the reduction in consumption of oil by 650 000 litres/annum for heating the farm.

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DIFFICULTIES, PROBLEMS

Problems were caused by regulatory changes. The guaranteed feed-in tariff for green electricity was decreased during the project implementation and thus caused difficulties with obtaining the loan. Consequently the payback period increased from 8 to 11 years.

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FOLLOW UP

Panvita Group is planning to further expand their biogas plant network within the group as an integral part of their complete breeding and processing production. Their strategic aim is to offer their knowledge of biogas utilisation outside the Group as well.
The plans to increase the green electricity production include tripling the green electricity production from 10 000 kWh to 27 000 kWh by 2011.

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FURTHER INFORMATION

Panvita Ekoteh d. o. o.
Lendavska ul. 5
Rakičan
SI - 9000 Murska Sobota
Slovenia

Tel: +386 2 543 92 82
Fax: +386 2 543 92 80
E-mail: ekoteh@panvita.si
Web: www.panvita.eu

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