Case Story Denmark

Solrød Biogas – Towards a circular economy

December 2015

MISSION AND VISION

The Solrød Biogas Plant was taken into operation in 2015. The plant was established and is operated by Solrød Biogas A/S, founded May 28, 2014 with Solrød Municipality as shareholder. Solrød Biogas A/S is driven by the vision of implementing sustainable, CO2 neutral energy solutions, while solving important climate and environmental challenges in Solrød Municipality.

The idea to build a biogas plant in Solrød emerged from the need to find a sustainable solution to the community’s odour problem, caused by seaweed fouling the beach. Simultaneously, the Solrød Municipality also wished to take concrete action concerning climate change challenges by producing green energy. The project benefited from the synergic involvement of several actors and interests, as local industries also had challenges finding beneficial outlets for their wastes and by-products, and they became involved as they found great interest in the project plans.

The biogas plant has a treatment capacity of 200,000 tons feedstock/year. The biogas produced is used for CHP generation in a large gas engine. The power is sold to the grid and the heat is supplied to the local district heating system which is operated by Vestegnens Kraftvarmeselskab I/S and owned by 12 municipalities as stakeholders. The energy production of the biogas plant and the anticipated savings of CO2 (equivalent) became part of the Solrød Municipality’s Sustainable Energy Action Plan (SEAP), under the Covenant of Mayors.