Polish Legislature Passes New RES law: Great News for Biogas

I have argued for several years that auctions are singularly ill-suited for biogas projects. The upfront cost of developing a biogas project is proportionally more than other RES technologies, so the risk of not obtaining support at the completion of project development is very high. See discussion on Polish Biogas Association on support mechanisms.  In English here. More discussion here.

Now the new government has recognized this and provides for biogas plants up to 1 MW to receive an guaranteed level of support. The reference prices have now also been adjusted to allow for profitable biogas projects that are well-structured and utilize heat. See Polish Biogas Association comments on reference prices 2015.  The direct sale of electricity is also allowed for these small projects which enormously incentivizes cooperation with food and meat plants that can provide their wastes in a nearby biogas plant. The full legislative text will be finalized shortly.

The critical issue now is the lead-time to develop new projects and obtain guaranteed support. CEERES, my company, has various projects in development and re-filing for permits and approvals should shortened the time line. But a major bump in the biogas installed capacity may take several years to hit the Polish Government targets for biogas. There are now, however, sound opportunities for investors in the biogas sector in here.


Above: steel digesters in Denmark, one of the key elements to odor-free operations that allow safe handling of all organic waste feed stocks.






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