Prospective conditions for the profitability of agricultural methanization installations - ATEE Biogas Club, Final report, October 29, 2013

This study sheds new light on the profitability of biogas plants. Until now, the industry as a whole, as well as public authorities, have based their analysis of the need for public support per kW installed on the idea that this need decreases with plant output. In many cases, however, the inherent costs of raw materials cancel out the savings on investment per kW installed. The study thus offers a new insight: there is no effect of scale in anaerobic digestion. Tariffs need to be restructured to take this into account. The study also represents a breakthrough in terms of the types of public support available. Up to now, the industry has been calling for a single form of support through the feed-in tariff, with a price scale sufficient to avoid recourse to subsidies. However, the study shows that the diversity of production costs in the different types of installations means that a system based solely on the tariff cannot ensure profitability in all cases. A case-by-case complement in the form of local subsidies remains necessary. Finally, the study shows that the amounts spent on remunerating producers would be offset by the savings made on gas and electricity production, on the one hand, and by externalities linked to job creation and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, on the other. To take these results into account, Club Biogaz has put forward six proposals: 1 - Maintaining the 'tariff + subsidies' system, 2 - Restructuring the basic tariffs for electricity and biomethane, lightening the criteria for installation size, 3 - Increasing livestock and agricultural effluent premiums and make them independent of plant size, 4 - Broadening the base of the energy efficiency premium, 5 - Extending the duration of contracts, 6 - Exempting installations from tax for 5 years