Agriculture's contribution to the renewable energy sector: Policy and economics - Do they add up?

This paper reviews on-farm renewable energy (RE) production and the associated feed-in tariff (FIT) policies in Germany, USA, Canada, Denmark and the Netherlands and the impact these policies have on Renewable energy implementation with particular focus on agricultural lands. A recent FIT policy implemented in Nova Scotia is examined and used as a case study to assess the potential affect these policies might be expected to have on RE implementation within the province. Several scenarios are developed based on the existing policy structure to provide a critical review of the policy and to identify potential modifications that might provide an increase in the implementation of RE.