Last year, almost 7 million m3 of biomethane was supplied to the distribution network in Czechia. This is according to data from all three domestic distributors. Monthly deliveries of biomethane to the Czech gas network currently amount to approximately 1.2 million m3. However, this represents only a fraction of the domestic potential. According to the newly approved government action plan, biomethane should replace more than 10% of the current consumption of fossil natural gas, but today it is less than 1%.
Twelve facilities currently supply biomethane to the gas network in the Czech Republic. Biogas stations predominate, with ten located throughout the country, supplemented by two wastewater treatment plants. Pražská plynárenská reports that up to 90,000 m3 of this gas from renewable sources is fed into the network from ÚČOV every month. Most of the other facilities producing biomethane in the Czech Republic are connected to the GasNet network, which covers the entire country with the exception of Prague and the South Bohemian Region.
“Nine biogas plants producing biomethane are currently connected to our infrastructure. They supply 12,000 MWh of energy to the system every month,” says Aleš Gregorovič, GasNet’s press spokesman.
The domestic leader in biomethane production, Energy Financial Group (EFG), is also working on the production of “green gas” in its own biogas stations connected to the GasNet network. It operates the very first domestic biomethane production plant supplying the network in Rapotín and another, recently modernized waste station in Vyškov. In 2024, these stations accounted for 26% of the largest Czech distributor’s supplies, and currently account for approximately 30% of its monthly supplies. By 2030, it plans to increase the annual production capacity of its facilities from the current approximately 7 million to 47 million m3 of biomethane.
Gas Distribution (E.ON) is the main supplier of biomethane in the South Bohemian Region, having connected its first production facility, a biogas plant in Jarošovice, to its network in June last year. “In more than a year since its launch, the Jarošovice BPS has supplied approximately 1.4 million m3 of biomethane to our distribution system,” says Lubomír Budný, E.ON’s press spokesman.
Czechia on the way to achieving its biomethane targets
Only EFG Group’s biogas plant in Rapotín supplied biomethane to the grid in 2022, but since then, gas production from renewable sources has seen significant growth. Whether the pace of further growth will be sufficient to meet the national targets set by the European Union remains to be seen. According to the currently approved Action Plan, domestic biomethane production should reach 500 million m3 per year by 2030. This would require an almost 35-fold increase in current monthly production of around 1.2 million m3 and the creation of at least 100 new stations by 2029. This represents a major challenge, especially since only twelve new facilities have been added in the last three years. The difference between installed capacity (almost 28 million m3) and actual biomethane production (15 million m3 for 2025 as an estimate based on current monthly production) also remains unclear.
According to the EFG’s CEO, Tomáš Voltr, this difference is a combination of several factors: “Especially in new biogas plants, the reason may be the gradual stabilization of biological processes in fermenters and the associated gradual increase in biogas production. At the same time, most biogas plants still have a cogeneration unit, so the production of biomethane and electricity can be controlled according to the daily market prices of the commodities in question, so that the plant produces the commodity that is most profitable at that moment. At EFG, we generally strive to maximize biomethane production in order to achieve output exceeding 90% of our facilities’ production capacity. Achieving 100% capacity is only theoretical, as regular shutdowns for routine maintenance and repairs of technology must be taken into account.”
The raw material composition of new biomethane stations is also crucial for the further development of the industry. There are almost 600 biogas plants in the Czech Republic, of which up to a quarter can be optimized for biomethane production. However, a large proportion of them process subsidized crops grown for this purpose, whereas today the emphasis is on waste inputs, both food waste, for example from supermarkets or industrial plants, and agricultural waste. Biomethane produced from easily processed, purpose-grown agricultural raw materials achieves lower emission savings compared to biomethane produced from biodegradable waste, where there are significant emission savings due to the diversion of this waste from landfills. This so-called advanced biomethane is therefore more valuable.
However, transforming biogas plants to receive and process waste materials is a complex matter from a legislative, commercial, logistical, and technological perspective, which may be another reason why the pace of biomethane production growth is lagging behind national plans. In the long term, however, according to the EFG’s executive director, this transformation has not only environmental but also economic benefits.
“We at EFG, in line with our vision and corporate strategy, focus exclusively on the production of biomethane from waste, even though this path is more investment-intensive, mainly due to the higher technological standards required for the plants. On the other hand, however, waste processing subsequently has a positive impact on the overall economic outcome of the project. Our own collection company, EFG Waste Logistic, which has been providing waste for the group’s biogas plants internally for seven years, also represents a significant competitive advantage for us in terms of the availability of raw materials,” concludes Tomáš Voltr.
