Twenty large Polish agricultural enterprises are switching their energy supply to their own biogas installations with the help of subsidies.
The farm-scale installations are based on innovative Polish technology that converts agricultural waste into electricity and biomethane. This was announced by the Polish Minister of Agriculture during the signing of a covenant regarding this energy transition on twenty Polish agricultural enterprises.
The implementation of the new investments will improve the economic efficiency of the agricultural sector, said Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Jan Krzysztof Ardanowski. The switch will also serve to increase the competitiveness of Polish agriculture and contribute to achieving climate goals, he added. The value of the program is at least 113 million euros and the investment return is expected within four to five years.
The twenty biogas installations will be built by the Polish state company ORLEN Południe from Poznań, western Poland, which is already active in the production of biofuels and bio-components. This form of energy transition is supervised by Poznań University of Life Sciences and the National Support Centre for Agriculture (KOWR).
Earlier this month, EU Commissioner Frans Timmermans (Green Deal) said that Poland is making progress in catching up with sustainable energy. Poland receives tens of billions in additional support from the COVID-EU recovery fund to quickly move away from the environmentally damaging coal industry. Frans Timmermans said that Poland could become one of the EU leaders in offshore wind energy.
“Poland is on the right path to becoming one of the European leaders in the development of offshore wind energy,” he said recently during a videoconference. Timmermans also pointed out that Poland is not only considering wind and solar energy, but Polish companies are currently preparing hydrogen projects. He also admitted that he saw “enormous potential in Poland when it comes to biogas.”
The trend to reduce the use of electric energy generated from fossil fuels seems increasingly irreversible. However, fully switching the economy to renewable energy sources remains a long and expensive process. This cannot happen overnight. Switching to electricity from biogas-powered plants, or to biogas itself, is seen by more and more scientists as a “possible solution” to the energy issue.