Market development
Biogas production rose across the EU in 2009, driven by the EU target of meeting 20 % of final energy consumption with renewable energies and the guidelines set forth in EU Directive 2008/98/EC for the handling of waste. On the basis of these political objectives, many countries have introduced incentive programmes for the generation of power from biogas (feed-in tariffs for electricity from biogas, green certificates, tenders or grants for the use of energy crops). Power generation from biogas grew between 2008 and 2009 by almost 18 % and accounted for a total of 25,170 gigawatt hours (GWh) in 2009. Total energy extraction from biogas rose over the same period by some 4.3 % to 8,346 ktoe (kilotonnes of oil equivalent). Around 52 % of the plants produced biogas from agricultural waste, while landfills and sewage treatment plants generated 36 %, or 12 % of the biogas in the EU. In 2009, the largest biogas producers in Europe (in thousands of tonnes of oil equivalent or ktoe) were Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Italy and the Netherlands. Rapid and dynamic growth can be observed in Greece, Slovenia, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Belgium.
- Primary energy production from biogas per capita in the EU in 2009 (toe / 1,000 inhabitants).
- Development in the number of biogas plants in Germany and their combined installed electrical capacity in megawatts [MWel].
Germany, with a share of 50.5 %, is the largest biogas producer in Europe – both in terms of total energy output and per capita. By the end of 2010, some 6,000 biogas plants were in operation here alone, with an installed combined capacity of around 2.28 gigawatts (GW) of electrical power. These plants supplied approximately 4.3 million households with around 15,000 GWh of electricity.
The construction and operation of biogas plants results in positive structural developments in rural areas and the creation of jobs. In 2010, the German biogas sector employed over 30,000 people, while generating a sales volume of some 4.7 billion euros (2009: 4.4 billion euros). At the same time, the export rate rose to around 16 % (2009: 10 %). According to a forecast by the German Biogas Association (Fachverband Biogas e. V.), export rates for the German biogas industry could reach 23 % in 2011.
At present, modern agricultural plants (around 85 %), in which farmers use agricultural products to generate energy independently, still dominate the sector in Germany. With the trend for ever larger and more powerful biogas plants, interest in biogas projects is also growing amongst energy producers and suppliers. On the other hand, there is also an identifiable trend toward smaller, liquid manure plants with capacities of up to 50 kW (due to the legally set tariff limit, see below) or 250 kW.
Since the first two plants for feeding biogas into the natural gas grid were put into operation in Germany in 2006, another 44 biogas plants have joined them as of February 2011. It is the goal of the Federal Government that more than 1,000 such plants will be supplying processed biogas to the natural gas grid by 2020, thereby substituting 6 % of actual natural gas consumption. A study has shown that by 2030, an available biogas potential of 100 terawatt hours (TWh) per year for feeding into the natural gas grid is conceivable in Germany. This amount of energy corresponds to around 10 % of the current natural gas consumption in Germany.
