Thursday, 25 February 2021
Dutch biowaste solutions provider HoSt have increased their investment and operations of bioenergy systems in the Netherlands.
In particular, investment and planned upgrades at their Boornbergum facility located to the North of the country in Friesland will give local farmers access to biogas production technology. Farmers with sufficient feedstock of crop or manure waste will be able to take advantage of these facilities all year around, rather than having to invest in their own biogas infrastructure.
HoSt has existing small scale plants around The Netherlands which can process waste to biomethane. Dubbed 'Microferms' after the fermentation process which produces the intermediate biogas product, the Dutch company has plans for further expansion of these sites around the nation this year.
“This is the key to creating more agricultural industry-specific renewable energy installations to fast forward sustainable livestock farming”, says Sjaak Klein Gunnewiek, sales manager biogas plants at HoSt.
The Boornbergum project is part of a collaboration with dairy coop FrieslandCampina, where the manure from 550 dairy cows is processed to produce 40 cubic metres of biomethane per hour, equivalent to a capacity of around 440 kW.
For 2018, The International Energy Agency (IEA) reported 3.4 PJ (0.94 TWh) of biomethane injected into the Dutch grid in 2018, which was a small portion (0.2%) of the total domestic gas demand.
Biomethane inject into the grid in The Netherlands is eligible for 12 year subsidy under the Stimulation of Sustainable Energy Production and Climate Transition (SDE++) scheme, which is the follow up of the Stimulation of Sustainable Energy Production (SDE+) scheme.
The scheme offers support for developers/installers of green energy technologies, with compensation commensurate with the added cost of producing sustainable energy, adjusting for carbon emission taxes including the EU-ETS.
Injected biomethane falls under the 'Renewable Gas' category under the SDE++, with the subsidy ranging approximately from 16 to 60 Euro/MWh, depending on facility characteristics including feedstock used, capacity and emissions savings.
The Netherlands also has an active biomethane GO registry operated by Vertogas, biomethane which has received SDE++ support is still eligible for GOs thus represent a top-up to biomethane producers.
This is in contrast to SDE++ support for renewable electricity production which now factors the GO market price into the subsidy received; a high appraised GO value reduces the support received via the SDE++ scheme, the idea being producers can be compensated via these green certificates instead.
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