Today, the joint parliamentary committees on agriculture and energy, climate and state assets heard the government's position on the expected place of biogas and biomethane in the updated National Energy and Climate Plan and on the legal changes planned by the government, enabling faster implementation of investments in the area of biogas and biomethane.
An ambitious scenario
The position presented by the representative of the Ministry of Climate and Environment, Miłosz Motyka, shows that the government is fully aware that "the use of biogas and biomethane is an opportunity for low-emission agriculture and the economy." It also already has specific solutions that should encourage investors and stimulate the development of the biogas sector in Poland.
– If today we say that the Polish economy needs new production capacity while reducing emission levels, we can achieve this by using biogas and biomethane – said Motyka.
The Secretary of State at the Ministry of Agriculture admitted that there were some delays in the National Energy and Climate Plan and it was sent to the European Commission only at the beginning of this year. The government assumed "in the base scenario" an increase in capacity in the biogas sector from 300 to 420 megawatts of energy generated, but in fact it is counting on an even better result.
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There will be additional billions
– In the coming weeks, we will update the National Plan and it is an ambitious scenario – admitted the Undersecretary of State. -We hope that this use will be even higher, including: thanks to programs such as "Energy for the countryside".
-Hence the decision of the Ministry of Climate and the Environmental Protection Fund to apply for a radical increase in funds for this program. If so far it was PLN 1 billion, increasing the funds by another PLN 2 billion is a gigantic increase. We are in the final stage of arrangements for granting Poland these funds and a happy ending awaits us – assured a representative of the Ministry of Climate and Environment.
The financing is intended to ensure that biogas plants can finally be built in agricultural areas.
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Improvements in the law
As Motyka stated, such biogas plants "have their place in the law, but it requires improvements." The Ministry of Climate has already developed such improvements under two acts and they implement investors' demands.
These solutions include: support for biogas plants with a capacity above 1MW, a direct gas pipeline for biogas, which will accelerate the connection process, extension of support for biogas in the FIT and FIP systems, and an update of the rules for settling support for biogas plants operating in high-efficiency cogeneration.
– These are the few points implemented as part of the acts that are already on the list of legislative works and, as we believe, will be adopted by the Parliament in the autumn – assured Motyka.
Mitigation of penalties
The government also intends – according to a representative of the Ministry of Climate – to liberalize the auction system for fuel sources.
-As our analyzes show, producers are particularly discouraged by the possibility of imposing a penalty by the Energy Regulatory Office for failing to deliver 95% of the energy declared in the offer. We are lowering this level to 65% and this is another demand of the industry that we will implement – said Motyka.
The ministry forecasts that "only this change will allow the creation of 40-50MW of new biogas power."
– This shows that in the statutory provisions that we already have on the table, we are able to strongly activate the biogas potential that lies in the Polish economy and Polish agriculture – noted the representative of the Ministry of Environmental Protection.
In addition to "Energy for the countryside", the cogeneration program based on municipal biogas, which has a budget of PLN 1.5 billion, also has great potential.
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Chances and dangers
In his position, Miłosz Motyka also drew attention to potential threats reported by investors, the social side and local government officials. This includes: about possible social protests that may accompany the location of a biogas plant and slow down the development of the industry. However, as he noted, support for nuclear energy in Poland has also evolved significantly over the last decade and Poles' attitude towards it has changed dramatically.
-In the same way, hopefully, the attitude towards biogas plants will also change. We hope that the biogas plants that will be built now will change the perception of such installations. We want high-efficiency technology to support this energy sector. We also want the need for local governments to invest in this sector to be greater and not to raise objections from local communities, said a representative of the Ministry of Climate.
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