15 Years of the Polish agricultural biogas plants: their history, current status, biogas potential and perspectives

Spatial Economic Modeling of the Waste-driven Agricultural Biogas in Lubelskie Region, Poland

“…The so obtained PE model is run for all scenarios set in Section 3. Each scenario is in turn divided in two sub-Scenarios, function of different hypotheses: 1) the "restrictive" scenario, in which proceeds of all biogas plants are derived only from the sale of electricity and, 2) the "optimistic" scenario, in which the sale of 1/3 of the heat produced (whose price in Poland is around 8.64 €/GJ, [5]) is taken in to account in the RoI calculation. Simulation results are reported in Table 4, displaying the number and the typology of ABPs obtained at the equilibrium in each powiat under investigation.…”

“…Even if the parameters concerning feedstock are directly proportional to the plant size, other key parameters identified by authors, such as construction costs and subsidies, are not linearly correlated with the plant size [9]. Reflecting the economies of scale, construction costs for biogas plants are fixed accordingly with the recent survey provided by Igliński et al [5], where the investment costs of different agricultural biogas plants operating in Poland are described in detail. Finally, following the approach proposed in [20] and [21], for each typology of ABP under investigation, the RoI is estimated assuming CHP technology where the ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) operates 8000 hours per year and the plant selfconsumption of electricity is approximately 8 % of the total [21].…”

“…On the grounds of prudence, in order to avoid overestimation concerning biogas profitability, we considered two options: i) proceeds deriving only from the sale of electricity and ii) proceeds deriving from the sale of electricity and no more than 1/3 of the heat produced. The sale of heat is in fact not always possible and the related cost for its distribution can be prohibitive, even if can be easily employed to heat residential buildings and livestock facilities, representing a considerable retrenchment at farm level [5]. Profits and RoI reported in Table 2 are estimated without considering costs of feedstock (for energy crops) and transportation (for all substrates).…”

“…478/2015). This act introduces new forms of support, namely the auctioning system to replace the previous systems of green certificates, whose main limitation was their instability, volatility and lack of durability [5]. As a matter of fact, during the period 2005-2015 the certificate-based incentive scheme was set on tradable certificates of origin whereby RES producers were entitled to received: i) price for electricity sold at competitive market and ii) price for tradable certificates of origin granted to the RES operator (the so-called "green certificates").…”

Agricultural Biogas—An Important Element in the Circular and Low-Carbon Development in Poland

“…Currently, in Poland, the total annual production potential for biogas (from substrates originating in the agricultural sector) is estimated to be from 2 to 5.5 billion m 3 [78]. Igliński et al (2020) calculated that the amount of energy that can be obtained from biogas in Poland is 131 PJ/year [79]. According to the data presented, the potential for agricultural biogas production is not used.…”