Fossil Energy Free Technologies and Strategies (FEFTS) include (i) Clean Energy Production Systems, (ii) Energy Efficiency solutions and as an auxiliary category (iii) soil carbon sequestration as a carbon compensation tool through agriculture. AgroFossilFree Project attempts to reduce the gap between the available FEFTS solutions and their successful implementation in the agricultural sector by following the subsequent steps:

  1. Assess and evaluate the current energy use status in EU agriculture through an extensive literature review.
  2. Identify existing needs and interests for the future farm energy profile by identifying factors influencing FEFTS adoption in view of regional specificities by conducting a survey of 470 farmers and 41 experts from the 8 EU participating countries.
  3. Identify and register in an online platform (AgEnergy Platform) available and directly applicable FEFTS from applied research results to market solutions and explore existing financing tools for defossilising activities.
  4. Collaborate with relevant stakeholders in thematic groups using interactive physical and online workshops to produce community-based ideas for FEFTS integration in agricultural systems at a regional, national and EU level.
  5. Create the AgEnergy Platform with all available FEFTS to be assessed and provide a Decision Support Toolkit to propose interventions and accompanied financing tools.
  6. Create policy guidelines and communicate them to increase visibility and promote the proposed FEFTS in real agricultural activity in the near future.

Selecting the policy guidelines that AgroFossilFree brings into consultation with the EC Policy Officers was a result of all the above steps, considering the technological and socioeconomic maturity of the available FEFTS that was derived from the scientific and grey literature, the research projects run in the EU, the existing financing mechanisms in the EU for FEFTS, the market availability of FEFTS and the direct interests and ideas from the survey (511 stakeholders) and the series of workshops in national (998 stakeholders) and transnational (140 stakeholders) level about FEFTS in European farming.

Therefore, AgroFossilFree has compiled a list of 19 Policy Briefs that are split into 6 horizontal ones that are relevant for all FEFTS and would help their adoption and diffusion at a faster pace and 13 specific ones for targeted technologies or practices that should be selectively promoted to bring agriculture into a defossilised future.

HORIZONTAL POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS

  1. Enabling the creation and growth of energy communities in rural areas
  2. Farm Energy Audits
  3. European Low Energy/Carbon Label of Agricultural Products

SPECIFIC FOSSIL ENERGY FREE TECHNOLOGIES & STRATEGIES POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS

OPEN-FIELD AGRICULTURE

  1. Agrivoltaics for open-field agriculture
  2. Alternative Fuels for Agricultural Machinery
  3. Precision Agriculture as Energy Consumption Reduction Strategy
  4. Carbon Farming for Carbon Removals
  5. Conservation Agriculture to enhance soil carbon stock and reduce GHG emissions in European Agriculture
  6. Alternative crop nutrient providers (Green Fertilisers / Biofertilisers, biostimulants / Biochar)

AGRICULTURAL CONSTRUCTIONS (LIVESTOCK facilities & GREENHOUSES)

  1. Building Management Systems (BMS) for Agricultural Construction
  2. Heat pumps for HVAC of agricultural constructions (RES4LIVE)
  3. Photovoltaics (PV) and Photovoltaic Thermal (PVT) Collectors and Systems for agricultural construction rooftops.
  4. Biogas production from agricultural waste and other innovative feedstock / Biomethane upgrading for local consumption or grid injection
  5. Facilitating the development of energy-independent farming in Livestock
  6. Energy upgrading/renovation of livestock buildings
  7. The use of thermochemical fluids for energy saving and storage in agriculture (The Greefa Project)

GENERAL POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS

  1. Financial Support to Fossil Energy-Free Technologies and Strategies
  2. Regulatory Support to Fossil Energy-Free Technologies and Strategies
  3. Technology, Knowledge Transfer, and Awareness Building provisions to support Fossil Energy Free Technologies and Strategies diffusion