The USA has significant potential to produce energy from anaerobic digesters (AD) due to the size of its agricultural sector. The use of ADs reduces greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from manure management. The financial benefits to farmers come from the on‐farm use, or off‐farm sales, of biogas and its end products, namely renewable natural gas (RNG) or electricity. Current energy prices and policies in the USA are insufficient to trigger large‐scale construction of ADs; however, payments to avoid GHG emissions and sequester carbon could become sufficiently high to prompt investment. This analysis quantifies the economic incentives necessary for the construction of ADs for swine producers and can easily be expanded to include other feedstocks. Various end‐use pathways to produce RNG and electricity are considered to account for location, herd size, and other parameters to deliver a comprehensive analysis for the USA. The analysis and results are composed of a generic part to illustrate the effects of carbon payment on profitability in general as well as a specific analysis for states representing 83.6% of the US hog inventory. Our results indicate that carbon payments would be a stronger determinant than energy prices in farm‐level decisions to install ADs, but that energy prices would be influential in determining the optimal biogas end use. The potential need for long‐term contracts – both for energy and carbon payments – to reduce investment uncertainty and increase investment in ADs is also discussed.

中文翻译：

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美国碳市场和厌氧消化池的区域经济影响：以养猪生产为例

由于美国农业部门的规模，其利用厌氧消化器 (AD) 生产能源的潜力巨大。 AD 的使用减少了粪便管理中的温室气体 (GHG) 排放。农民的经济利益来自沼气及其最终产品（即可再生天然气（RNG）或电力）的农场使用或非农场销售。美国目前的能源价格和政策不足以引发大规模的ADs建设；然而，为避免温室气体排放和固碳而支付的费用可能会变得足够高以刺激投资。该分析量化了为生猪生产者构建 AD 所需的经济激励措施，并且可以轻松扩展到包括其他原料。考虑到位置、牛群规模和其他参数，考虑了生产 RNG 和电力的各种最终用途途径，以便为美国提供全面的分析。分析和结果由说明碳支付对盈利能力总体影响的通用部分以及占美国生猪存栏 83.6% 的各州的具体分析组成。我们的结果表明，在农场层面安装 AD 的决策中，碳支付将比能源价格更具决定性，但能源价格将在确定最佳沼气最终用途方面产生影响。还讨论了长期合同（能源和碳支付）的潜在需求，以减少投资不确定性并增加对AD的投资。