Country Report Summary 2021

IEA Bioenergy Task 37 – A perspective on the state of the biogas industry from selected member countries

February 2022

Summary

China has the highest number of biogas plants among the IEA Bioenergy Task 37-member countries, with more than 100,000 biogas plants, followed by Germany with over 10,000 plants. In addition to the 100,000 biogas plants, China also has a large number of household biogas units. None of the other member countries have more than 700 biogas plants (Figure 2.1). Austria has not reported their biogas production per feedstock, but presented a total number of biogas plants.

Germany has the highest annual biogas production, around 89 TWh (Figure 2.2). China produces around 72 TWh per year, UK 26 TWh2 and Brazil 12 TWh. The other member countries produce less than 3 TWh. In countries like Australia and UK, landfills are the largest source for biogas production, while they are only a minor contributor in countries like Germany and Switzerland, indicating the low level of landfilling of organic waste material. The actual biogas production is not reported in all countries; thus in some cases in this report it has been calculated, based mostly on the heat and electricity production with an assumed efficiency of 35%. In other cases, it has not been possible to get a good estimate of the indigenous biogas production.

In most of the member countries, biogas is mainly used for heat and electricity generation. Sweden stands out, with more than half of the produced biogas being used as vehicle fuel. Germany is second in absolute numbers in terms of biogas as a transport fuel.

Germany and Sweden have had the largest markets for biomethane in recent years, but a growing interest is seen in other countries as well. UK has now taken over the second position from Sweden, using more and more biomethane for heat and electricity production, but also as vehicle fuel.

Financial support systems are very different from country to country. Various systems with feed-in tariffs, investment grants and tax exemptions exist. A clear correlation between the financial support system and the way biogas is utilised is evident in the Task 37 member countries. In countries like the UK, Germany and Austria, feed-in tariffs for electricity have led to most of the biogas being used to produce electricity, while the system with tax exemption in Sweden favours utilisation of the biogas (biomethane) as a vehicle fuel. In several countries, financial support systems have led to an increased share of biogas in the gas grids.

Lastly, there are many exciting innovative biogas projects going on in the member countries, including dry digestion, CO₂ utilisation and cross-sectoral synergies.