Biomethane production capacity in Europe has risen to 7 billion m3, but the pace of construction of new facilities is slowing down. According to the latest map from the European Biogas Association (EBA) and Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE), biomethane production in Europe grew by 9% year-on-year, reaching a total capacity of 7 billion m3 per year. Although the number of biomethane stations has risen from 1,548 to 1,678 and private investment has increased to €28 billion, the development of production, including Czech domestic production, is still not progressing fast enough. Growth is key to the RePowerEU plan, which targets production of 35 billion m3 per year by 2030.
Although biomethane production in Europe is on the rise, the pace of construction has slowed significantly. While a total of 226 new stations were built in 2023, only 130 were built last year. The decline reflects not only persistent administrative barriers and lengthy permitting processes, but also uncertainty about the future form of support in individual European countries. It is therefore important to set clear national energy targets and adopt appropriate legislative support to ensure that the momentum of development in the sector is not lost.
“Although EFG is not dependent on subsidies supporting biomethane production and has not yet drawn on them for any of our facilities, we recognize that the absence of an effective system limits both producers and investors. The Czech Republic has great potential for biomethane production. However, the construction or modernization of production facilities is, of course, challenging both technologically and in terms of investment. It is therefore obvious that the conditions for biomethane production should be optimized as much as possible,” says Tomáš Voltr, CEO of the Energy Financial Group.
Due to regulatory uncertainty, biomethane production is virtually at a standstill in Germany and the United Kingdom. France is now the European leader in the production of this green gas, overtaking Germany with a 21% higher share of production and almost three times as many facilities. Countries such as Italy, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Sweden contribute significantly to production, but compared to other European leaders in expanding biomethane production, they have seen slower year-on-year capacity growth.
The development of the biomethane sector is closely linked to the European Union’s goal of increasing production to 35 billion m3 by 2030, based on the RePowerEU plan. To this effect, €28 billion in private investment has been earmarked to date, to be used to increase the capacity of so-called green gas on the continent by 7.3 billion m3 per year by 2030. According to current EBA data, biomethane production in Europe already reaches 7 billion m3, but in the Czech Republic it is below the European average.
“The current installed capacity in our country is almost 27.5 million m3, but it is far from being fully utilized. However, according to national targets, it should increase to approximately 500 million m3 per year by 2030. We intend to contribute to this ambition, which is why we plan to increase the annual production capacity of our facilities from the current approximately 7 million m3 to 47 million m3 of biomethane by 2030. Already this year, we are targeting 11 million m3 in projects that are already in progress,” concludes EFG group spokesperson Barbora Formánková.
