Introduced in September last year, the special law on agricultural biogas plants has so far not led to an investment boom in this sector – in the KOWR list, there are 136 agricultural biogas producers operating a total of 168 installations. “This law is supposed to facilitate the establishment of agricultural biogas plants, but so far it has not sparked large investments,” says Assoc. Prof. Krystian Szczepański, director of the Institute of Environmental Protection – National Research Institute. According to him, the potential of biogas remains unused in Poland, despite its weather-independent nature and capacity to manage waste from agriculture and industrial processing – a significant factor in the circular economy.
“Biogas in our country is not entirely utilised, and we have a substantial potential – estimated at 8 billion m3, considering the natural gas imports of 10 billion m3. We need to exploit this, as the economy expects us to have robust, stable sources of electricity and heating,” says Prof. Szczepański to Newseria Biznes agency.
Poland has a significant raw material potential for the production of biogas. According to estimates from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MRiRW) based only on agricultural raw materials, there is a potential to produce over 7.8 billion m3 of agricultural biogas annually (2 GW). Considering raw materials from agricultural and food processing, this potential could even double. However, the currently installed capacity is a mere 300 MW, with agricultural biogas accounting for nearly 155 MW.
“One of the barriers to the development of biogas is the issue of investment costs. It is approximately PLN 30 million for 1 MW of installation. These are very high costs compared to other renewable sources, for example, photovoltaics cost around PLN 2 million per 1 MW, and wind turbines – around PLN 5 million per 1 MW. We need some form of support to kickstart this sector,” evaluates the director of IOŚ-PIB. “Another significant barrier is social acceptability. There is still a belief in our society, particularly in local communities, that biogas plants emit odours and are burdensome for local communities. This is a misconception – if done right, with suitable technology and local substrate, and also properly recycling waste, we can additionally achieve the required level of recycling.”
Biogas plants – as a renewable energy source – replace energy production from fossil fuels, reducing CO2 emissions. Importantly, they provide stable and weather-independent energy. They can generate power even for 8,000 hours annually (90% of the time), unlike other RES installations whose efficiency depends on weather and fluctuates between 10% and 30%.
“Biogas is a stable source of electricity and heat, low-emission, ecological, renewable, working 365 days a year. This is very important. We are investing now in photovoltaics and wind turbines, which are unstable sources, and we must have a certain power base that will ensure we have electricity in the sockets,” says Prof. Szczepański. “Another advantage of biogas is the safe disposal and closing of the cycle of biodegradable waste from agricultural production, processing, or for example from restaurants. We can easily neutralise all this and recover electric energy in the form of biogas. We can also inject it into our gas network after conditioning – then it’s already biomethane.”
Most of the provisions of the agricultural biogas plants special act, which was introduced last September, have come into effect. The act is supposed to spur the development of this sector and allow a more extensive use of biogas for energy production in rural areas. Its main premise is to shorten the investment process and significantly facilitate the construction of agricultural biogas plants, including simplifying decisions on building conditions, construction permits, and network connections.
Under the new regulation, farmers and the processing industry are entitled to construct biogas plants on their own land. Biogas plants established under the new special act are meant to have a local character – their maximum power output should be 3.5 MW of electrical energy or 10.5 MW of heat, with an annual agricultural biogas production of no more than 14 million m3, or a maximum of 8.4 million m3 of biomethane from agricultural biogas. As stated in the bill’s justification, these limits roughly correspond to an average rural municipality’s demand for energy or heating. The special act also specifies that agricultural biogas plants should use local raw materials.
The MRiRW estimates that thanks to the new regulations about 2,000 agricultural biogas plants could be built in Poland. Currently, the register of agricultural biogas producers, maintained by the National Centre for Agricultural Support (KOWR), lists 136 agricultural biogas producers operating a total of 168 installations. The annual efficiency of RES installations producing agricultural biogas is 631 million m3.
The ministry assesses that a positive effect of the development of the agricultural biogas plant sector will be a reduction in agricultural operating costs, related to lower energy costs and the facilitation provided for the use of post-fermentation products as fertilisers. This could lead to the activation of local communities, consequently improving the local labour market situation. Possible results of the introduced changes could be the establishment of new companies and the specialisation of existing businesses in the installation of agricultural biogas plants, which would increase local economy competitiveness and attractiveness. The operation of agricultural biogas plants may also bring additional revenues to municipal budgets.
