Biogas in Hungary

General

According to the Directive 2009/28/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources the target for the share of energy from renewable sources in gross final consumption of energy in the year 2020 for Hungary is 13% (in the year 2005 the share was 4.3%). The Directive has a mandatory 10 % target for transport to be achieved by all Member States, which refers to renewable sources as a whole, not biofuels alone.

Renewable electricity, heating and transport fuels: Biogas

Thanks to the preferential support system, numerous new biogas plants have been built in the last few years. In the framework of the New Hungary Programme the construction of 44 biogas plants was financed by a total subsidy of over HUF 33 billion in 2007. The general legislative background, however, does not favour biogas even though it offers great possibilities through its feed-in into the natural gas network.   The biogas plants in Hungary are installed mostly at wastewater treatment plants. Municipal landfill sites have also serious biogas potential. Hungary has a significant potential for biogas production from agricultural resources and plans to increase the number of facilities using manure and various food industry waste by assuring advantageous support conditions. Presently twelve agricultural biogas plants are in operation and use farm by-products (animal manure, corn silage, sweet sorghum). Hungary lags behind in terms of biogas production also compared with countries of the Central European region. According to 2007 data only the Polish biogas sector is less developed while the Czech Republic for example produces four times the amount of the Hungarian biogas production. One of the reasons for the slow development is the extremely low feed-in-tariff for electricity made by biogas and the complicated and long lasting authorization processes. The European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development granted subsidies to thirty Hungarian farms to use liquid manure for biogas production. The first projects have been already implemented and so the capacity of biogas plants grew to 7,6 MWe in 2009. Further investments are expected till 2011.

In Hungary, electricity generated from renewable energy sources is promoted through a price-regulation in terms of a feed-in tariff. The Energy Office sets the period of payment and the maximum amount of eligible electricity in compliance with the statutory provisions (§ 11 (3) Act Nr. LXXXVI of 2007). In 2011, newly connected systems are entitled to the following payments: systems:  value/kWh: 12.54-34.31 HUF/kWh (€0.0461368 - 0.126177 /kWh), depending on the peak/valey time and adjusted to inflation each year. The prices is guaranteed for 15  years.

The legal background to the feeding of cleaned biogas and gas produced from biomass into the national gas network was provided by an amendment to the Natural Gas Act in 2005 (Act LXIII/2003 amending Act XLII/2003 on natural gas). Compressed biogas after being purified might be used as fuel for transport or can be fed to the gas distribution network. The transmission and distribution tariffs are for biogas uniform like for natural gas. The law (GET, 2008. Act XL.) demands adjustment of purified biogas quality to the natural gas. The Hungarian gas network infrastructure is highly developed, 90.8 percent of the village municipalities are connected to the natural gas distribution system. The future of biogas in the transport sector's role is expected to grow, especially in the rural areas where the biogas will be produced and will accessible for customers.  Act XLII/2003 on natural gas supply and Act XL/2008 provide a definition for biogas. Also, both the old and the new GSA authorize the relevant Minister and the Government to specify in a decree the criteria for introducing biogas and other gases of natural gas quality as well as natural gas extracted by mining into the existing gas system, the quality regulations for gas feed-ins and the rules for takeover and measurement. These detailed rules are still missing and should be drawn up.

EU Structural Funds (Operational Programme for Environment Protection) available:

– 2007 – 2013: allocated EUR 25,3 billion

– 2 main fields: Energy savings and Renewables For Renewable Energies (RES-E and heat generation): 200 million EUR

– Supported projects: biomass, biogas, geothermal, small scale wind turbines

Future programme changes expected

According to NREAP the expected installed biogas capacity in Hungary is  going to grow form the level of 14 MWe in 2010 to 43 MWe in 2015 and 100 MWe in 2020 with annual production of 636 GWh.

Sources

National Renewable Energy Action Plan for Hungary. 2010. URL: http://ec.europa.eu/energy/renewables/transparency_platform/doc/national_renewable_energy_action_plan_hungary_hu.pdf

Directive 2009/28/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 April 2009 on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources, http://ec.europa.eu/energy/renewables/transparency_platform_en.htm

http://www.eh.gov.hu/gcpdocs/201101/honlaprafeedintariffshu_from_20110101_105.xlsx

http://ziuaenergiei.ro/pdf/Erste_Bank_Ladislav_Tolmaci.pdf

Global Feed in Tariffs 2010 (http://www.globalfeedintariffs.com/feed-in-tariffs/

Renewable Energy Sources 2010 (http://www.renewable-energy-sources.com/2010/03/30/green-energy-trends-2010/)

http://www.bbj.hu/index.php?id=54276

http://www.coach-bioenergy.eu/index.php/en/project-news/101-bigdevelopmenthungary.html

http://www.unido.org/fileadmin/media/documents/pdf/Energy_Environment/carpathians_session3_1.pdf

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Last update: January 2011

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