How far advanced are plans to develop a renewable biogas industry in Ireland?

There’s quite a lot of work underway. We injected the first molecules of renewable gas into the Irish gas network in the middle of this year. We also have a planning application in with Cork County Council for a large scale central injection point. That’s where we would collect renewable biogas from on-farm anaerobic digester (AD) plants, bring it to the central injection point and inject the biogas into the national gas network. We’ve set the certification and quality standards for biomethane gas to be used in the gas network, which is really important as it provides the end user with peace of mind that the gas is of a certain quality and comes from renewable sources.

Is government policy in place to support the establishment of a biogas industry?

The Climate Action Plan, published by the Government this year, calls for the development of a support mechanism for on-farm AD plants. It also calls for a target to be set for how much renewable gas we need to produce by 2030. These two measures will be finalised by the Department of Climate Action and the Environment by the end of this year.

Could we see an AD plant on most Irish farms in the future?

There will be AD plants on Irish farms, but we’re certainly not going to see an AD plant built on every farm in the country. Building a 1 or 2 megawatt (MW) electrical equivalent AD plant needs quite a lot of feedstock (grass silage and slurry) to generate biogas. On certain large scale farms in Ireland, (pig farms or large dairy farms) the farmer may be in a position to build and supply their own AD plant. But when you look at the capital investment that’s required to build an AD plant, I think there’s very few farmers that could afford to finance one on their own. That’s why I think the co-operative model could be very interesting for establishing a farmer-led biogas industry in Ireland.

How much will it cost to build a 1-2MW AD plant?

Building an AD plant of that scale would typically require a capital investment of €4m to €5m. If this capital cost was spread over a number of farms and underpinned by a support mechanism such as a feed-in tariff, then the investment is very doable for farmers.

Why is the co-op model suited to starting a biogas industry?

Given the scale of farming in Ireland, the co-operative model is the most appropriate for developing a farm-level biogas industry. Not every farmer can build an AD plant, but there’s no reason why every farmer can’t produce additional grass and supply it to an AD plant owned by a farmer co-op. The co-op’s AD plant would also provide a home for slurry all year round, which is a real positive at this time of year, when the window for slurry spreading has closed and the weather has been very poor for emptying slurry tanks.