Biogas - it pays off for everyone! Why say "yes"?
New jobs, profit for farmers, cheaper heat and fertilizers, plus tax revenue that can be spent on roads, schools, or infrastructure? Yes, it’s possible!
An opportunity we're passing by
Tangible benefits for residents and better living are no longer just a privilege of the wealthiest municipalities with fossil fuel or metal ore deposits. Today, agricultural areas and other locations with suitable conditions for building a Biomethane Production Plant are also benefiting.
Real profits – for farmers, residents, and entire municipalities – can come from what we have right here at hand! This is not the future, but the present that’s happening where we can wisely use what we have. Biogas is finally a huge opportunity for greater energy independence and reducing the currently necessary gas imports nationwide, and thus… saved money in our wallets.
The list of benefits is so long that it begs the question: why is our country so far behind and not taking advantage of this opportunity?
Europe already has over 20,000 biogas plants and 1,700 biomethane plants. In Poland, we're opening our first biomethane plant, and we have less than 200 agricultural biogas plants. It's a drop in the ocean of needs, but also just a fraction of the potential.
Let’s start from the beginning. Biogas plant and biomethane plant – these terms sound quite foreign to many of us. Maybe we’ve encountered such technical names before, but what’s it all about? What’s all the fuss about – farmers and residents might ask? In simple terms, it’s a local facility that processes agricultural raw materials into gas (biomethane plant) or electricity and heat (biogas plant).
The idea itself is brilliant in its simplicity - convert what's left from farming activities, use manure, slurry, leaves, husks, whey, silage, straw, and dozens of other substrates, turning them into something of huge market value - energy in the form of gas or electricity! But that's not all. We don't waste the residues from raw materials, which we can still use as fertilizers.
After degassing, their precious elements will still reach the soil in the form of digestate, and additionally eliminate the odor nuisances we experience today when slurry or manure goes directly to the field. Poland has limited gas deposits and has been forced for decades to buy it from countries that have such resources in excess, and often live off their sale, making an excellent business – this can be reversed! Now a single municipality can be a producer of this priceless resource, which after being injected into the gas network or liquefied into bioLNG, will supply consumers nationwide.
Small homeland, great energy
Looking at the role of biogas more broadly, it turns out that it brings concrete benefits to local communities. Below, using specific examples, we explain why it's worth seriously considering building such a facility in your area to create new jobs, ensure cleaner air, and additionally produce energy in the form of gas, electricity, and heat.
It’s also an opportunity for the development of our “small homelands,” because biogas is an impulse for local activities that also translate into our wallets and the country’s energy security.
New workplace and opportunity for local cooperation
Building a biomethane production facility is primarily an opportunity for new jobs. Between 7 and 12 people can be employed to operate the biogas plant.
These include facility operators, maintenance service technicians, operators, and production managers. The installation creates opportunities for local transport service providers, for whom facility service and raw material delivery generate estimated annual revenue ranging from hundreds of thousands to several million zlotys.
A biomethane plant is also an impulse to attract other investments in your municipality and economic development of the region. Access to cheap heat and electricity is a magnet for investors who will create more new jobs. Next to the biogas plant, wood drying facilities, mushroom farms, sawmills, or greenhouses can be established.
Finally, farmers from nearby localities will also benefit, as the biogas plant is a huge opportunity for local cooperation. The facility needs raw materials that will come from nearby farms, and farmers will receive payment for them. These include manure, slurry, silage, or straw. Annual demand, depending on the size of the biomethane plant, is estimated at 100-200 thousand tons. This in turn means real earnings of several million zlotys annually for cooperating farmer-suppliers from the immediate vicinity. What’s worth emphasizing is that they have guaranteed collection and income throughout the year, regardless of weather or purchase prices.
Cheaper heat and taxes for the municipality
Building a biogas production facility also means huge benefits for the budget of the municipality where the investment is made.
These are local taxes paid by investors, which will translate into more money for road repairs, schools, street lighting, or other residents' needs. In the case of a biogas plant, property tax ranges from 700,000 PLN to even 1.3 million PLN annually. This money will go to the municipal budget and can be used for public purposes.
A biogas plant in the municipality also means tangible benefits in the form of heat supplied to residential buildings, schools, or other public facilities. This means savings typically reaching up to 30 percent on bills compared to coal heating and much more when using other fuels. How does it work? Biogas goes to a cogeneration unit where electricity is generated for the biomethane plant’s needs. The heat produced during engine operation is recovered and can be used through a local network as an excellent and cheaper alternative to traditional furnaces, for example.
Solving the problem of odors in fields and valuable fertilizer
Residents of agricultural regions quite often struggle with odor nuisances from manure and slurry spread on fields. A biomethane production facility is an ideal solution for such problems.
If slurry or manure goes to the biogas plant, then the organic compounds contained in them will be converted into biogas. The entire process takes place under controlled hermetic conditions in closed halls. Biogas is produced during anaerobic fermentation, which minimizes the unpleasant odor to practically zero - quite different from fields where manure and slurry fermenting in the open air actually stink.
Undoubtedly, an undeniable benefit from a biogas production facility is also the digestate – a natural fertilizer rich in mineral components that guarantees better soil absorption than raw slurry. Importantly, it doesn’t emit odor and is a classified bio-fertilizer that provides soil with nutrients. For farmers, this also means savings related to reduced costs of purchasing artificial fertilizers. For farms within the facility’s operating area, this can amount to even several million zlotys in savings annually!
Biogas and biomethane mean a safer Poland
Just the last few years, first with the COVID-19 pandemic, and then Russian aggression and the outbreak of war in Ukraine, have opened many of our eyes. They showed that relying on foreign supplies of strategic resources can end badly.
Gas and energy prices rose sharply after the war broke out across our eastern border, and many countries had to give up Russian gas. The situation we found ourselves in should make us realize how dependent we've become on foreign suppliers and how important energy security is.
Because can we talk about it when we use resources that aren’t ours to generate electricity, power cars, or produce fertilizers?
Thousands of biogas plants in other European countries show that we can use the benefit of our own local resources. Thanks to biomethane plants, we can produce gas locally from available resources that won't suddenly run out. As long as agriculture develops, there will be resources. What's worth emphasizing is that a biomethane plant helps in agricultural development, providing an additional source of income and a solution for managing what sometimes poses a problem, especially for breeders or processors, such as agricultural residues or manure.
Every cubic meter of biogas means less energy and fuel imported from Russia, USA, or Saudi Arabia. Poland has huge potential for producing its own gas, and as it turns out, not only from drilling but from nature and agriculture – thanks to plants producing biomethane, which after refinement is an excellent substitute for natural gas. According to the Polish Biomethane Organization, our country can produce up to 8 billion m3 of biomethane, which would cover almost half of Poland’s natural gas demand!
If we consider that we extract some gas in Poland from our own deposits, this would mean we would be practically independent, and billions of zlotys that flow out of our country each year, and thus from our pockets as well, will stay in Poland – in our municipalities and in the wallets of every Pole who pays bills daily.
Biomethane means saved money in our wallets
Many of us don't realize how dependent we are on gas and in how many industries this resource is used.
Well, we don't have to use a gas pipeline to pay for gas! It's enough that we use electricity, which is also generated from gas. Let's look further! Many fertilizers, especially nitrogen ones, are produced using natural gas.
When we look around, we’ll see much more – we have pipes, chairs, strips, and other PVC products in our homes, which… are also made from gas. Today, many of us aren’t even fully aware, but we all contribute to the billions paid over the past decades to other countries for gas. This situation can change thanks to biomethane production plants! That’s why their construction is breakthrough and has support across political divisions, because it’s beneficial both for local communities and the entire country.
Locally produced gas in biomethane plants doesn't need to be imported, so we're not dependent on foreign prices, politics, or conflicts.
It's worth being aware that every biogas or biomethane plant being built is absolutely not in the interest of global giants controlling fuels, their prices, and distribution directions, because every cubic meter of gas produced this way will reduce the spending of our hard-earned money outside our country.
Investing in biogas production facilities therefore means cheaper and more reliable gas for residents, schools, businesses, and farms. Moreover, local governments investing in biomethane plants can even become gas exporters, thus earning from its sale to the network.
We all want our country to be safe, energy independent, increasingly wealthy, and guaranteeing a future for next generations. This is not only the role of the government but also ourselves in our "small homelands" - municipalities, cities, and our beautiful Polish countryside.
The mayor, village head, councilors, and each of us can take matters into our own hands and meet this challenge. Biogas is an alternative to imported gas, as well as cheaper electricity and heat. And most importantly – it pays off for all of us!
Do you have a location, idea, or questions? Let's talk.
Whether you want to invest in a biomethane plant, check your land’s potential, or simply learn more.
We’ll respond specifically and factually.
