BioWatt and especially our CEO, James Lloyd, would like to offer a big “Thanks!” to Pinsent Masons for inviting us to speak at last weeks evening talks on anaerobic digestion.

The evening focussed on the comparisons between the take up and development of anaerobic digestion in the UK and German markets – and especially how the latter has been influenced by technology, policy and funding over the past 15-20 years.  It was also an opportunity to consider and discuss how that might relate in the future to how the burgeoning UK market develops.

Some key take away points were:

• The UK has done extremely well to catch up in many areas – for example, having built 50% of the number of German BioWaste processing anaerobic digestion plants in just 4 years and the advancement of biomethane to grid
• Germany has benefitted enormously from two, four year long, periods of policy and fiscal stability that allowed it to achieve > 1,000 new plants per year before cutting back to a more mature market level of fiscal support
• Germany is currently focussing heavily on and will continue to incentivise BioWaste AD projects – there is 4 mill tonnes of biowaste requiring treatment – and expects to build a further 100 plants each year for the next two years to meet this demand
• There is huge, affordable appetite from funders in the UK to invest in farm and waste based biogas projects – especially biomethane to grid
• The current lack of stability and clarity on key policies – RHI, Sustainability Criteria, degressions – is leading to a 6 month delay in new biogas projects reaching financial close while funders wait for clarity surrounding long term returns