Poland could become a gas giant. We are not using our potential

• We are not using our potential in the production of green gas in biogas and biomethane plants - experts believe.
• What has become standard in other European countries is only in its infancy here.
• Meanwhile, it is not only about energy production, but also about the management of green waste.

- Poland is at an early stage of development of biogas and biomethane installations compared to EU countries - writes the Polish Economic Institute in the Tygodnik Gospodarczy.

According to data from the Energy Regulatory Office (as of March 2025), there are 416 plants in our country (415 biogas plants and one biomethane plant). The Energy Market Agency indicates that they are characterized by an installed capacity of 320 MW and annual electricity production of less than 1.6 TWh (0.94% of national electricity production in 2024).

In February 2025, the first biomethane plant in Poland was launched on the premises of the Agricultural Experimental Farm in Brody. The installation is to produce 0.65 million cubic meters of biomethane per year, which will be compressed and sold as a fuel in the transport sector (bioCNG).

For comparison, there are over 20,000 biogas plants and about 1,600 biomethane plants in Europe, and the technical capabilities of the EU's biomethane generation already exceeded 6.4 billion cubic meters at the end of the first quarter of 2024, i.e. over 9,800 times the Polish production in 2025.

PIE specialists indicate that Poland has a large potential for biogas and biomethane production , but uses it to a minimal extent. The National Energy and Climate Plan (KPEiK) assumes that the national biomethane production potential amounts to as much as 8 billion cubic meters. If this plan were implemented, we could cover Poland's demand for natural gas by 46 percent (8 out of 17.4 billion cubic meters).

This would reduce our country's dependence on imports of this fuel or enable a faster phase-out of coal in the power and heating sectors.

- PIE emphasizes.

Other estimates, e.g. those of the Gas for Climate organisation, suggest that the Polish potential for producing this fuel is even greater – 5th in Europe in terms of size (around 13 billion cubic metres in the long-term perspective of 2050).

The already mentioned national plan (KPEiK) in the ambitious transformation scenario predicts that biomethane will provide 11.9 TWh of energy in the national final energy consumption in 2030 (1.1 billion cubic meters) and 28.3 TWh in 2040 (2.6 billion cubic meters).

The document highlights several actions that support the implementation of biomethane installations, including facilitating the construction of direct gas pipelines for producers of this fuel. In April this year, the Ministry of Climate and Environment prepared proposals for changes in this area.

As experts say, the war in Ukraine, the energy crisis and the transition to renewable energy sources mean that the importance of biomass must grow. From the point of view of local governments, recycling levels are also important, which can be achieved more easily thanks to the management of bio-waste.

You can see the progress, but when the turtle moves, it also makes some progress

- said Andrzej Sobolak, president of the Biorecycling Association, when asked by PortalSamorzadowy.pl about the changes he sees in the approach to bio-waste management.

In his opinion, we should and are able to act faster. As he says, we already have numerous composting plants and they are still needed, but this is only a partial solution to the problem of managing green waste. Composting plants produce fertilizer, while we can derive measurable energy and financial benefits from biogas plants.

There is another advantage of biogas plants over composting plants, namely a well-designed and built biogas plant eliminates odors, while a composting plant does not eliminate these odors - said the president of the Biorecycling Association.