Density of Biogas Power Plants as An Indicator of Bioenergy Generated Transformation of Agricultural Landscapes

Abstract

The increasing use of biogas, produced from energy crops like silage maize, is supposed to noticeably change the structures and patterns of agricultural landscapes in Europe. The main objective of our study is to quantify this assumed impact of intensive biogas production with the example of an agrarian landscape in Northern Germany. Therefore, we used three different datasets; Corine Land Cover (CLC), local agricultural statistics (Agrar-Struktur-Erhebung, ASE), and data on biogas power plants. Via kernel density analysis, we delineated impact zones which represent different levels of bioenergy-generated transformations of agrarian landscapes. We cross-checked the results by the analyses of the land cover and landscape pattern changes from 2000 to 2012 inside the impact zones. We found significant correlations between the installed electrical capacity (IC) and land cover changes. According to our findings, the landscape pattern of cropland—expressed via landscape metrics (mean patch size (MPS), total edge (TE), mean shape index (MSI), mean fractal dimension index (MFRACT)—increased and that of pastures decreased since the beginning of biogas production. Moreover, our study indicates that the increasing number of biogas power plants in certain areas is accompanied with a continuous reduction in crop diversity and a homogenization of land use in the same areas. We found maximum degrees of land use homogenisation in areas with highest IC. Our results show that a Kernel density map of the IC of biogas power plants might offer a suitable first indicator for monitoring and quantifying landscape change induced by biogas production.

Effects of the German Renewable Energy Act and Environmental, Social and Economic Factors: Biogas Plants Adoption and Agricultural Landscape Change

“…Therefore, biomass was generally obtained from the immediate vicinity of a biogas plant. This finding was confirmed by the research of Csikos et al [29], who found that biogas plants were concentrated in areas where energy crops were largely cultivated. In addition, it has been found that areas with higher biogas technical potential had biogas plants with higher capacities [25].…”

“…Considering CLC changed-maps only report arable land change as one land use type, which limits the analysis for silage maize area changes during various EEGs, the detailed agricultural crops area was derived from regional crop statistic record to facilitate evaluation. To relate dynamic changes in the agricultural landscape to biogas plant installed capacity density, we adopted the approach from Csikos et al[29]. Three impact zones (A, B and C), representing different density categories (low, medium and high) of the installed capacity (kWel./km 2 ) of biogas plants, were delineated using the Kernel Density tool within ArcGIS 10.7 software.…”

Impact of Energy Landscapes on the Abundance of Eurasian Skylark (Alauda arvensis), an Example from North Germany

“…The silage maize and winter rapes are the dominant land-use types of the energy landscapes. Based on Csikos et al [13], there is a significant positive correlation between the capacity of the biogas power plants and the area of silage maize and rape.…”

Effects of the German Renewable Energy Sources Act and environmental, social and economic factors on biogas plant adoption and agricultural land use change

“…Model I.1 was used to explore the impact of environmental, social and economic factors on the decision to adopt biogas production. Model I.1 was constructed as follows: To spatially study the impacts of environmental, social and economic factors on biogas plant production density, we adopted the impact zone analysis approach of Csikos et al [75]. Using the spatial join function of the ArcGIS 10.7 software, the data used in the empirical analysis on each investigated environmental, social and economic factor except for PPAP was assigned to the corresponding county to create the factor map.…”