The European Biogas Association (EBA) has presented the fifth edition of its statistical report, a compendium of the state-of-the-art of biogas and biomethane in Europe, and highlighted the sector’s record growth in the region.
Record growth has been achieved in Europe in terms of the number of plants and production.
The rate of growth has sky rocketed in certain countries such as the UK, the EBA report notes, where the number of biogas plants has doubled in just one year.
“There were 17,240 biogas plants in Europe by the end of 2014. This is a remarkable number, especially when realizing that it represents 18% growth,” said Dr. Jan Štambaský, EBA President. “Also development of the biomethane industry shows outstanding results, with 367 plants, 23% increase compare to 2013.”
However, the report explains that the overall augmentation of the number of plants has followed two different scenarios; on the one hand are countries who haven’t commissioned any new plants and have seen only minor developments – such as Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary – and on the other are those countries who have increased their biogas market with a substantial number of new biogas installations. The latter includes the UK, France and Belgium, among others.
A steady increase can be appreciated in the biomethane sector, with 87 new biogas upgrading units commissioned. Germany leads the growth rate, followed by Sweden and the UK. Despite its small size in terms of gas consumption, Sweden has placed itself as the European front runner in biomethane production and especially, the use of biomethane in transport: the country dedicated 78% of its 1,303 GWh production to fuel almost 50,000 vehicles.
Source de l’article Gasworld | Auteur
