Postponement of energy crop requirements in biogas production

The Danish government and a majority of the parties in the Danish Folketing have entered into an agreement to postpone the phasing in of new, stricter energy crop requirements in biogas production as from 2022. The object of the agreement is to promote increased biogas production in Denmark here and now with a view to reducing the dependence on Russian gas.

Bech-Bruun advises on projects regarding establishment and transfers of biogas plants. In biogas projects, it is of decisive importance that adequate biomass resources are available for the biomass plant in question, and not all types of biomass are equally suited for biogas production. Energy crops, such as maize, beets, corn, grass as well as Jerusalem artichokes are particularly suited and may increase the production of biogas. However, certain statutory requirements apply on limited use of energy crops in biogas production in consideration of biogas sustainability and climate impact.

The consideration for sustainability and climate impact was in fact the reason behind a political agreement of July 2021 to phase in stricter requirements for the use of energy crops in biogas production, which were to apply as soon as from August 2022.

Energy crop threshold temporarily maintained
In April 2022, the government and a majority of the parties in the Danish Folketing agreed to postpone the planned phasing in of the new, stricter energy crop requirements by one year.

This means that a threshold of 12% will still apply to the use of energy crops for biogas production in the period 2022-2023.

The energy crop threshold being maintained at 12% until August 2023 is expected to increase biogas production by a total of 3 petajoule in the period 2022-2023, which corresponds to approx. 15% of the current, annual biogas production for the gas grid.

The lower thresholds for the use of energy crops are planned to apply as from the 2023-24 reporting period, where the threshold will be lowered to 6%. The threshold will be lowered to 4% from the 2024-25 reporting period. As was the case previously, the introduction of an allowance threshold for the use of energy crops has been suggested to be reduced over time.

Amendments to the sustainability executive order were put out to consultation at short notice in the course of April and are expected to take effect on 1 July 2022.

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