Economic viability and geographic distribution of centralized biogas plants: case study Croatia

Current promising increase of agricultural investments in Croatia not only leads us to the implementation of new technologies and procedures but also leads to an increase of public awareness toward modern agricultural production. As a side effect, renewable energy sources, with special emphasis on biogas, are quickly coming under the loop. Because of this effect, a question of total biogas potential for the farming sector in Croatia becomes very important. One of the biggest obstacles in utilizing biogas on Croatian farms is its geographical displacement and small size. Through this paper economic viability and geographical distribution, as key parameters in determining realistic biogas potential on family farms, will be presented with special emphasis on the two most promising farming sectors: cows and pigs. As already mentioned, one of the biggest barriers in utilizing biogas in Croatia is the relatively small size of farms that are not capable of having economically viable biogas production. That is why community biogas plants will be important in increasing biogas utilization in Croatian farming sector. Presented methodology represents basics for regional analysis of biogas potential of a farming sector with Croatia as a case study with cost assessment of community biogas power plants considering transport distances, transport costs, and size of the power plants and family farms involved in community biogas production. The value of finding Croatia’s farming biogas potential is also important since farms are high-volume energy consumers in their everyday operations and part of that energy consumption can be compensated from renewable energy sources like biogas.