Biogas at IFAT ENTSORGA 2012: Setting the Sights on Export Markets

Biogas is gaining ground around the world and sales of biogas technology and services are increasing. IFAT ENTSORGA 2012, the World´s Leading Trade Fair for Water, Sewage, Waste and Raw Materials Management, taking place from 7 to 11 May 2012, offers exhibitors and visitors from all over the world a platform at which they can experience all the latest developments in biogas live and explore new business contacts.

In 2010 around 1,000 new biogas plants were constructed in Germany, which was about the same high level as in 2009. And in 2010 alone, sales in the biogas sector reached around 4.7 billion euros. At present the German manufacturers of biogas plants make around 80 percent of their turnover on the domestic market, but export sales are becoming ever more significant for these companies and their development. According to a survey by market researchers trend:research, the number of biogas plants in the 16 European countries studied in the report will more than double by 2020, to over 16,000. More and more countries are laying down the legislative framework needed to boost growth in the biogas sector in their countries. The system practised in Germany for some years now, of feed-in tariffs for electricity generated from renewable sources is now establishing itself gradually throughout Europe.

According to the analysts at trend:research Italy, alongside Germany, is currently offering the most attractive rates and thereby creating the foundation for faster growth than the European average. Other nations are catching up. Even the more market-oriented Great Britain introduced a feed-in tariff last year for decentrally generated electricity from anaerobic fermentation. For April 2011 the tariff is being extended to include thermal energy generated from biogas and biomass.

Large, new markets with expectations of rapid growth are to be found above all in Eastern Europe, for example in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary, according to a joint study undertaken by the consultants ecoprog and the Fraunhofer Institute for Environmental, safety health and energy technology. Outside Europe, too, biogas is gaining ground. Mexico is a good example: Over the last four years the government of this Central American country invested the equivalent of 17.7 million euros in the form of subsidies for the installation of 305 biogas plants. According to the German economic promotion organisation Germany Trade & Invest, by next year the number of plants will have doubled. The Mexican Ministry of Agriculture is making around 33 million euros of funding available for this.

Israel, too, is pushing ahead with renewable energy. The national electricity supervisory authority is planning by 2017 to authorise anaerobic biogas plants with an installed total capacity of 160 MW. Investors who succeed in getting an electricity-generation licence, will be granted a feed-in tariff of initially 12 euro cents per kilowatt-hour for a period of 20 years. The tariff will be updated each year during the licence period.

The increasing industrialisation of the agricultural sector in many developing and emerging countries also opens up promising opportunities for the biogas sector. In order to integrate the private sector more in the setting up and expansion of sustainable energy systems in the partner countries in which Germany is engaged in development initiatives, the trade association Fachverband Biogas and the development organisation Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit signed a cooperation agreement in January this year. "German technology leaders are an engine for setting up modern, future-capable energy systems in developing and emerging countries, and also at the same time opening up new markets there. This cooperation agreement will ensure that the developing countries, too, will benefit from the latest experiences on the German biogas market," emphasised Dr Claudius da Costa Gomez, Managing Director of Fachverband Biogas. As in previous years, the Fachverband Biogas will again be organising a joint stand at IFAT ENTSORGA 2012.