01.06.2016 WP 4 Replication: Biogas situation in Poland Report Deliverable: Biogas situation in Poland (related to task 4.3) Author(s): Radosław Górecki, Nils Daugaard, EC Network Quality review: Final version Date: 10/06/2016 Grant Agreement N : 691755 Starting Date: 01/01/2016 Duration: 36 months Co-ordinator: Nils Daugaard, EC Network Contact details: 0045 3250 8800 nda@ecnetwork.dk Page 1 of 8
Table of Contents 1. Introduction... 3 2. Polish biogas potential & main substrates... 3 3. Current market... 4 3.1 State of development... 4 3.2 Obstacles & main focus of technology promotion... 6 3.3 Major biogas players... 6 3.4 Biogas policy & regulations... 7 Page 2 of 8
1. Introduction According to the official documents and independent analyses, agricultural biogas sector in Poland will develop with increased momentum in the upcoming years. This can be possible due to the fact that there is a big potential in the terms of Polish resources available. But resources are only one of the factors that lead to the success of biogas industry development technological knowledge, social awareness and political will are the most important drivers among others. The BiogasAction Work Package 4 that is focused on project replication activities across European Union aims to support the development of the biogas sector through cooperation with Polish partners. 2. Polish biogas potential & main substrates Potential of biogas production in Poland is very high. It is estimated that around 5 billions cubic meters of biogas could be produced by use of the Polish resources per year that corresponds to roughly 36 % of total natural gas consumed in the country (Figure 1). Figure 1. Polish biogas potential compared to the total consumption of natural gas (100%). The agricultural waste products alone could produce a volume of 1,7 billions m 3 of biogas per year or around one third of the total potential. First biogas plants in Poland were created in the second part of the 90 s. In 1996 first Landfill Biogas installation was started in Braniewo with power of 1,3 MW. In 1998 one of the first Wastewater Biogas installation was initiated in Inowrocław (producing 329 kw electricity and 540 kw heat). Firstly biogas plants were mainly constructed close to the big animal farms due to the substrate accessibility; nowadays they are mainly opened close to the industrial facilities such as vegetable and fruit processing, dairy factories and slaughterhouses. Page 3 of 8
Nowadays the most preferable substrates for the biogas plants among the investors are agricultural and food-production wastes. This is due to the fact that such substrates have guaranteed supply all over the year. On the other hand, also energy crops are receiving high interests but again to ensure the continuous supply, these are mainly in the form of silage. The most common used resources for biogas during 2015 were: slurry, fruit and vegetable residues, distillery wastes and maize silage. Table 1. Most common substrates for biogas production in 2015. Based on Polish Agricultural Market Agency. Substrates Mass used in 2015 (ktones) Manure 606 Fruit & vegetable residues 485 Distillery Wastes 440 Maize Silage 416 Beet Pulp 189 3. Current market 3.1 State of development The share of renewable technologies in the whole energy production in Poland is around 12%. Biogas total production in Poland equals 279 MWel this include all types of biogas: agricultural and waste biogas. Despite the huge biogas potential only 76 agricultural biogas plants are registered in Poland. Number of biogas plants commenced and volume of produced biogas increase every year but growth is very slow though year 2015 showed almost a doubling since the previous years (Figure 2 & Table 1). Figure 2. New biogas plants registered in Poland each year (2011-2014). Based on Polish Agricultural Market Agency. Polish biogas plants are mainly operating in CHP mode, burning produced biogas and generating electricity and heat. The amount of produced heat and biogas in the recent years by biogas plants is presented in the Table 2. Most of the Biogas Plants on the Polish market are of the size of 1 MWe or bigger, 26 of the plants are below the level of 1 MWe, and their size vary starting from small plants of 100 kwe. Page 4 of 8
Table 2. Production of biogas and energy from biogas in the years 2011-2014. Based on Polish Agricultural Market Agency, 2016. Year Produced biogas volume [mil m 3 ] Electricity produced by biogas [GWh] Heat produced by biogas [GWh] 2011 36,646 73,433 82,638 2012 73,152 141,804 160,128 2013 112,412 227,880 246,557 2014 173,932 354,916 373,695 Despite this positive trend a comparison with a country of similar potential Germany shows that the potential itself is not enough without the proper incentive from the policy makers. Even with the decreasing trend of opening new biogas plants in Germany, the amount of biogas plants in Poland is still far behind (Figure 3). Total biogas production in Poland equals to 279 MWel compared to 10,786 MWel in Germany that is world leader in Biogas technology utilisation. Figure 3. New biogas plants registered each year - Poland and Germany comparison. Based on Polish Agricultural Market Agency and German Biogas Association. Page 5 of 8
3.2 Obstacles & main focus of technology promotion The main obstacle for rapid biogas development communicated by the organisations such as Union of Producers and Employees of Biogas Industry (UPEBI) is lack of the understandable and stable support scheme that will: Specify guaranteed prices that are adequate to the costs of technology Simplify the procedures of the grid connection Current law does not guarantee the grid connection of the biogas plant (both electrical and gas grid), even the small units have problems to get the permissions for connection. Poland also lacks a proper system that will inform about the possibilities of the grid connection. Procedures of getting connection permission are very complicated and receiving a reply for such takes very long time. Moreover, for a long time there was no political will to prepare stable and transparent regulations for not only biogas plants but the whole renewable energy sector. Works on the renewable energy act have been going for a long time, without visible effects, there is a lot of tardiness on the policy makers side in this matter. Such situation raises uncertainty on the investors point of view and restrains the market development. There is around 500 projects that are ready for realization, but are frozen due to the lack of proper support and regulations. Organisations promoting renewable energy sources should work together and influence the government on creation of suitable regulations. Another obstacle can be low society awareness of the biogas plants. Biogas is not at the worst position within renewable energy technologies as it comes to the society awareness compared for example to the wind energy, to which resistance is much bigger and the knowledge about biogas installation improves gradually. This is thanks to many educational and informative undertakings. However, there can be still observed reluctance in the society, due to the fact that within the first biogas projects in Poland there were few very unsuccessful installations that caused odour trouble. This issue can only be solved by education, presentation of good practices and positive impacts of the properly made biogas plants, where the major part is dependent on the quality of biogas installations commenced in the near future. The biogas promotion activities should be focused mainly on an active support of the biogas sector in terms of know-how on both technological and financial/project development levels. Thus, BiogasAction dissemination can fit very well to the needs of the Polish market especially with its focus on the knowledge and experience sharing. 3.3 Major biogas players Major players on Polish biogas market are private companies and associations that are uniting investors and local authorities of municipalities interested in renewable energy projects development. Within the private companies, the biggest share of the biogas energy is held by: Poldanor S.A. (eight plants producing in total 7,4 MWe), Polska Grupa Biogazowa (five plants producing 5 MWe), there are eight biogas plants that are producing 2 MWe and more, in which the biggest is in the size of 2,4 MWe and was founded by the company NEW Darżyno in 2013. Page 6 of 8
The biggest associations on the Polish biogas market are Union of Producers and Employers of Biogas Industry (UPEBI) and Polish Economic Chamber of Renewable and Distributed Energy (PIGEOR), both of these organizations are members of European Biogas Association. Figure 3. Logos of the biggest players on the Polish biogas market - companies above, NGOs below. 3.4 Biogas policy & regulations Current political situation in Poland seems more favourable for biogas development than previously, the government start looking at the biogas as an important solution for country s energy security. It also seems to be the most favourable one when compared with other renewable energy technologies. Talks with political representatives are now more active and as the new Energy Strategy for 2050 and changes in the energy law are under development the biogas market can seek opportunities coming in the near future. The policy makers start to look at biogas as an important solution for country s energy security and great opportunity for development of agricultural regions. When starting up a biogas project the investor can apply for additional funding from i.e. EU operational programme Infrastructure and Environment but also in the National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management (NFOŚ). As it comes to the support, the one accepted by the previous government, was guaranteed Feed-in-Tariff for renewable energy producers. FiT was supposed to take effect from the 1 st January 2016, however the new government has decided that improvement of the predecessors bill is necessary and FiT has been held until 1 st July 2016. On March 1st Ministry of Energy declared that in the new bill FiT won t be applicable for the micro installations and net-metering will be used for the settlement of the energy produced to the grid. The proposed converter of net-metering is 1:0,7 this means that the producer will be paid 70 % of the market equivalent for each kwh produced and transferred to the grid. This is however mostly important for the micro-scale installations, for big renewable energy plants an auction system is being prepared. Based on the New Renewable Energy Sources (RES) Act draft from 06.05.2016, the auctions will take place through Energy Regulatory Office with use of Internet Auction Platform (IPA). The first test auction is to be held on the fourth quarter of 2016, and first large auction on 2017, the reference prices will be presented no later than 30 days before the date of first auction. According to the proposed new RES act draft, the term energy clusters is going to be introduced such clusters are self-sufficient energy islands based on the public-private Page 7 of 8
partnership between i.e. municipalities, companies and universities. The energy clusters are divided into micro-clusters up to 10.000 households and macro-energy clusters up to 20.000 households. Self-energy-sufficiency should be obtained with combination of different renewable energy sources, such as biomass, biogas, wind and solar energy. Such clusters will have special, favourable rules in terms of support. Moreover, RES draft include definition of local biomass share that means it will be necessary to use biomass produced within 300 km radius from the power generation unit. Page 8 of 8