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To expand the potential of renewable energies, energy storage is required to level peaks in energy demand and supply. The aim of the present study was to examine and characterize the energy consumption of a milk production system to find possibilities and boundaries for a self-sufficient energy system. A detailed quantification of energy production of the test farm and the consumption of the milk production system showed, that the total energy production could cover the energy consumption of the production process. However, the temporal distribution of energy production and consumption requires energy storage in the production process. Though ice bank milk cooling and water heating have the potential to cover parts of this storage capacity, battery storage is mandatory to enable full autarky. The consideration of different seasons leads to different optimal dimensions of the energy system. The energy price is decisive for profitability, both in the purchase and in the sale. Smaller energy systems are generally at an advantage due to the higher self-consumption quota.

In view of rising global demand, energy is becoming a significant cost factor in industry and society. In addition to the global players China, India, and the USA, Africa will also become a driver of the world’s primary energy demand in the future due to the rapidly growing developing countries. In addition to the armed conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, global energy markets are tense and volatile due to inflation and higher borrowing costs. Because of society’s desire to phase out the use of fossil fuels, the use of renewable energies is increasingly taking center stage worldwide and especially in Germany. Rural areas and agriculture, especially energy-intensive livestock farms, are particularly affected by this development and are therefore faced with additional economic challenges. Additional energy can be generated by using photovoltaic systems on the roofs of farm buildings or by utilizing the liquid manure from livestock farming in biogas plants. For these farms, such alternative sources of energy could open previously untapped potential and additional synergies for using their own inexpensive energy on the farm or supplying surplus electricity directly to the public grid as a market participant. Agriculture could thus serve as an actor in a decentralized energy supply and thus build up regional energy networks. However, intelligent electricity storage concepts and a corresponding energy management system (EMS) are essential to be able to utilize the potential for renewable energy generation at all, to coordinate both internal production processes and the varying energy demand and supply on the electricity grid. As agricultural production processes differ greatly from farm to farm and region to region, the introduction of an energy management system is strongly dependent on user acceptance. The purpose of this study is to use the web-based software tool ADOPT (CSIRO 2018) to predict the level of acceptance and the duration of the market launch of an EMS based on the region of Bavaria. Individual important influencing factors for the subsequent regional marketing concept are also identified.

Driverless transport systems (DTS) or automated guided vehicles (AGV) have been part of intralogistics for over six decades. The uniform and structured environment conditions in industrial halls provided the ideal conditions for simple automation, such as in goods transport. Initially, implementing simply-designed safety devices, e.g., bumpers, could reduce risk to an acceptable level. However, these conditions are not present in an agricultural environment. Soiling and harsh weather conditions are anticipated both indoors and outdoors. The state of the art in intralogistics are light detection and ranging (LiDAR) scanners, which are suitable for both navigation and collision avoidance, including personal protection. In this study, the outdoor and navigation suitability of LiDAR is assessed in test series. The aim is to contribute advice on validation of LiDAR as a possible technology with respect to navigation and collision avoidance in freely navigating automatic feeding systems.

Regional energy supply is an important topic in the context of the energy transition in Germany. The “Cow Energy” project aims to combine the production of energy and milk for the farmer. In order to take the different needs into account, a central energy management system (EMS) is being established. This system records and simulates how much electricity is generated from renewable sources (biogas, solar, wind, etc.) on the farm. This is compared with the consumption of the barn technology (milking robot, feeding robot, etc.). This energy management is regulated according to the needs of the cows. In order to balance the fluctuations between energy production and energy consumption, the EMS regulates various battery systems. One goal is to network this energy system with the region and to establish regional energy networks.

In recent decades, the costs of energy in dairy farming increased mainly due to rising energy prices but also due to increased mechanisation and automatisation. Electric energy in dairy farming is essentially used for milking and milk cooling. However, the energy consumption of automatic milking systems (AMS) depend on many factors (e.g., machine generations, machine configurations and settings, and operative conditions). To evaluate the differences in performance and energy efficiency of AMS, the impact of different technologies within the attachment arm in practical conditions, a detailed quantification of energy consumption was carried out on two consecutive single box automatic milking systems (AMS) of a dairy farm in southern Bavaria (Germany). The AMS equipped with an electrical drive of the attachment arm was more efficient and showed a higher capacity regarding cows in the herd. The replacement of the pneumatic drive with electrical drives leads to higher energy consumptions of the milking robot but reduces the energy consumption of the air compressor. Hence, the energy efficiency of the electric attachment arm showed strong advantages in the energetic efficiency of the whole milking process. Advances of sustainability due to the increased performance are and should be investigated in further research.