Agricultural productivity and increasing the competitiveness of agricultural production is determined, among other things, by reliable and efficient energy supply – in production costs, the cost of energy supply of processes is up to 30%. Effective use and efficiency improvement of power equipment in the agro-industrial complex is thus of particular importance.

A significant part of the territory of Russia with rural settlements does not have a centralized power supply. Connection to centralized electrical systems is difficult due to high capital costs and tariffs, lack of funds for the laying of expensive heating networks and the construction of power lines. This means that it is advisable to provide electricity and heat to consumers, including agricultural enterprises located in these territories, using systems and equipment of autonomous, small-scale power generation.

Power supply issues at these enterprises are often solved by installing diesel power plants, but this is not always the best option, considering the remoteness and inaccessibility of many agricultural facilities and, accordingly, the high cost and complexity of importing liquid fuel.

In this regard, it is important to implement the distributed energy systems based on decentralized and combined energy supply sources using local and renewable energy sources (RES) - biomass, wood and plant waste, peat, vegetable oils, manure, solar energy, wind, geothermal waters, micro-hydroelectric power station, etc.

Their effective use in many regions can cover a significant part (up to 30%) of the energy balance of a number of farms and enterprises, reduce by half the number of power outages, reduce dependence on centralized energy supply, save significant amounts of scarce traditional energy resources while improving the production environment, and create decentralized distribution systems that provide self-energy supply to a number of enterprises and facilities.

An advantage in the problem of using waste and RES for energy purposes is their almost annual renewable capacity and availability in the main areas of agricultural production. In this respect the use of biomass and RES in agricultural energy is of particular importance.

The share of RES in the energy balance of the village is still small – up to 1.5%. The goal is to increase its volume up to 8% by 2030.

For example, the use of biogas complexes on livestock and poultry farms provides additional energy in the form of biogas and high-quality organic fertilizers, as well as significantly reduces the anthropogenic load on the environment. By 2030 the total amount of manure and dung for processing into biogas and fertilizers can reach up to 14 million tons by dry weight, which with the use of second-generation anaerobic digesters and improved technology can be obtained up to 4 billion tons m3 of biogas per year.

The growth in the use of renewable energy sources depends on the level of investment cost reduction per 1 kW of installed capacity and the cost of the generated energy. Over the past 10 years, the cost of generated energy has decreased by 2 times - this favorable trend will allow in the future to significantly expand the area of using renewable sources in rural areas.

For thermal processes in animal husbandry, it is advisable to use decentralized energy and heat supply systems - such technological processes as waste heat utilization, energy accumulation, local heating and the use of heat pumps have high energy efficiency, the use of which will save up to 25% of energy costs for heating and microclimate. The direction of combined production of electric and thermal energy is very promising, which can be carried out by means of mini-CHP plants, converting old boilers that produce only heat to cogeneration with the production of electric and thermal energy.

In general, the introduction of new modern energy supply systems, energy-efficient methods and technical means of energy supply, technological processes, production facilities will significantly increase the energy efficiency of using fuel and energy resources reduce energy consumption and energy intensity of agricultural production by up to 40%, increase the reliability of energy supply, and reduce energy losses by 2 times, and significantly improve working and living conditions in rural areas.