Bioenergy in Germany – facts and figures on development, support and investment
The bio energy sector for power and heat production in Germany includes four different types of biomass use.
- Biogas from energy crops – Biogas power stations make up the lion’s share of Germany’s bio energy sector. There were . Most of these installations use the biogas (a mixture of roughly 50 percent methane and 50 percent CO2) generated in fermenters from energy crops and manure to fire small combined heat and power plants (CHP) that feed electricity into the grid and can produce heat for a local heating network. There are also biomethane plants that include a second step, separating the CO2 from the methane to feed pure methane into the natural gas network. There were plants installed in Germany in 2019 (). The biomethane is used to produce electricity and heat in gas-fired power stations, or can be used to fuel gas-powered vehicles.
was installed in Germany in 2015. Traditionally, the largest share of these installations is located in the south and north-west of Germany. Ìýthey amounted to 1,100 MW in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg, and 1,479 MW in North Rhine-Westphalia, Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein. - Biogenic waste – Biodegradable waste such as food and other organic residue can also be used to generate biogas. By around 140 biogenic waste fermentation plants were operating in Germany – some upgraded their gas to biomethane.
- Solid biomass – Around that predominantly burn residual and non-recyclable waste wood to produce power and heat are installed in Germany with a capacity of 5. Their number rose from around in the year 2000. A relatively new phenomenon are wood gasifiers. These very small plants in which the solid biomass is have mostly been installed in the past five years and have an installed capacity of only around ).Ìý Ìý
- Liquid biomass – A negligible amount of power () in Germany is generated from liquid biomass such as rapeseed oil, soy bean oil or palm oil in around across Germany.
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Power and heat production from bioenergy
In 2015 around (TWh) of electricity was generated from bioenergy (total gross power production in Germany was , of which 187 TWh was from renewable sources). The largest share of bioenergy (30.1 TWh, ca. 62%) was produced from the 8,900 biogas plants, followed by solid biomass like wood (11 TWh) and biogenic waste (5.8 TWh).
31.6 percent of Germany’s gross power consumption in 2015. Of all renewables, bioenergy had the second largest share (8.5%), after wind power (13.3 %), and followed by solar PV (6.5%). Biogas and biomethane contributed 5.3 percent.
Renewable sources provided in heat in 2015. Of that, bioenergy contributed the largest share (). Solid biomass contributed the lion’s share of 106 TWh, followed by biogas (16 TWh) and biogenic waste (11 TWh). The overall contribution of bioenergy to final energy consumption for heating and cooling from renewable sources was .
Development
Since 2000, power production from biomass has grown tenfold in Germany.
In the biogas sector most additions were made in 2009 and 2011, with development (See figures below).
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Financial support
Biomass installations received the second largest share of payable on German power prices in 2015. Of the 6.17 cents per kilowatt-hour paid by consumers in renewable levies, 2.66 cents went to solar PV installations, 1.57 cents to biomass plants and 1.17 cents to onshore wind turbines.
Payments for electricity to bioenergy producers under the Renewable Energy Act amounted to in 2015, the German Association of Energy and Water Industries (BDEW) estimates, compared to 4.6 billion to onshore wind and 10.6 billion to PV installations.
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With the 2014 reform of the Renewable Energy Act, support for traditional biogas plants was significantly reduced, leading to a decline in newly installed facilities. Small manure-based biogas plants and those using biogenic waste for biogas production are exempt from the cut in funding, as the them over the use of energy crops.
New installations run with have not received feed-in tariffs .
Investment in bioenergy
Of the invested in new renewable installations in Germany in 2015, 1.9 billion euros were used to build new bioenergy facilities, or make additions to existing ones. Of this, around 1.4 billion euros went into heat-generating projects and 0.5 billion euros was used for electricity-generating installations.
The Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy also from the operation of renewable energy plants. This includes the turnover of companies providing services and fuel to renewable installations. the economic stimuli from renewable energy plants amounted to 14.7 billion euros. Of that, 9.9 billion euros was generated in the bioenergy sector (4.5 billion by electricity-generating and 2.9 billion by heat-generating facilities, 2.5 billion for biofuels).
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CO2 savings through bioenergy
In 2015, Germany avoided the emission of by using renewable energy in the heating, power and transport sectors. Germany’s total greenhouse gas emissions are estimated at . The use of bioenergy helped to avoid of CO2 equivalents.
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