2. A planning guide
2.1 Introduction
This guide to planning is intended to serve agricultural extension officers as a comprehensive tool
for arriving at decisions concerning the suitability of locations for family-size biogas plants. The
essential siting con-ditions capable of influencing the decision for or against a biogas plant are
covered (cf. figure 2.1 for a summary survey). The detailed planning outline (table 2.1) has a `'data"
column for entering the pertinent information and a "rating" column for noting the results of
evaluation.
Evaluation criteria
+ Siting condition favorable
o Siting condition unfavorable, but
a) compensable by project activities,
b) not serious enough to cause ultimate failure,
- Siting condition not satisfied / not satisfiable
Information on how to obtain and evaluate the individual data can be found in the corresponding
chapters of this manual by following the pointers provided in the "reference" column. .
Despite its detailed nature, this planning guide is, as intended, nothing more than a framework
within which the extension officer should proceed to conduct a careful investigation and give due
consideration, however subjectively, to the individual conditions in order to arrive at a locally
practical solution. By no means is this planning guide intended to relieve the agricultural extension
officer of his responsibility to thoroughly familiarize himself with the on the-spot situation and to
judge the overall value of a given location on the basis of the knowledge thus gained.
Fig. 2.1: Biogas planning modules (Source: OEKOTOP)
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