The key piece of the puzzle

Achieving the EU’s climate targets will require fundamental changes in the energy sector. The Biogas Report 2022 shows just how important biogas is.

One of the countless biogas plants in Europe that can provide more energy security. Source: European Biogas Association (EBA).

In cooperation with the European Biogas Association (EBA), Bioenergy Europe published the statistical “Biogas Report 2022.” The report looks at the latest trends in biogas consumption and production in Europe. Biogas is a flexible, reliable and renewable energy source that significantly lowers CO₂ emissions and reduces carbon. And now, and not only in the future. This applies both to the mobility sector, where biogas-fuelled passenger cars are driven in an almost as virtually CO₂-neutral manner as heavy trucks, as well as to other applications such as heating, cooking and industry. It would therefore be important to promote biogas and all other sustainable combustibles and fuels and their infrastructure, in order to achieve greater energy security quickly and protect the climate at the same time.

The European biogas market has grown steadily in recent years, with a growth rate of 4% from 2019 to 2020. However, Europe and its industry’s dependence on gas imports is still very high, and gas consumption has increased steadily since 2014. In 2020, 22.21 times as much CNG as biogas was used across Europe. These results require a radical change in investment, but also in policymaking, to promote renewable energies such as biogas. The EU must not only correct its energy strategy course to become climate-neutral by 2050, but also stop doing business with unreliable partners where imports are concerned. Given the current situation, rising energy prices and the EU’s more ambitious goal of moving away from fossil fuels quickly, biogas must also be used as a versatile renewable energy source for decarbonisation.

In Switzerland, too, there are 37 plants that produce biogas and feed it into the gas grid. In addition, there are hundreds of smaller biogas plants that use the produced biogas directly on site. Source: European Biogas Association (EBA)

If biogas is processed into biomethane, it can be fed into the existing gas grid or used as an environmentally friendly fuel for mobility. Sustainable biogas production also reduces waste and methane emissions from manure and landfills and reduces dependency on mineral fertilisers. This aspect is also important in view of the most recent shortage of fertilisers and the corresponding price rises.

Compared to fossil fuels, biogas could reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the EU by up to 240% and biomethane by up to 202%. The “Biogas Report 2022” shows that biomethane production has more than doubled over the past five years and increased by 25% last year. However, in order to reach the production target of 35 billion cubic metres of biogas/biomethane specified in the “RePowerEU” plan, 5,000 new biogas plants should be commissioned throughout Europe over the next eight years. There is therefore an urgent need to make more of biomass and biogenic residues. (pd/jas, 12 July 2022)