MDI Energia has signed another contract with the Doral Environmental Infrastructures group, this time for a biogas combined heat and power plant in Kaplonosy in the Lublin region. The new unit, with an electrical capacity of 0.5 MWe, will be built next to a 1 MW plant that is already operating there.
The installation is expected to be completed within 12 months of signing the agreement. For MDI Energia, it is the second project carried out for this investor in Kaplonosy: the first biogas CHP unit, with a capacity of 1 MW, was delivered there in 2023–2024.
The decision to expand an existing site points to a wider trend in part of the biogas market. Instead of launching isolated projects, developers are increasingly using proven locations, local substrate supplies and infrastructure already in place.
– This is our next contract with the Doral Environmental Infrastructures group. We are seeing growing interest in building new biogas and biomethane installations, also in the same location or in the immediate vicinity of units already in operation – said Antoni Kubasiewicz, vice president of MDI Energia responsible for renewable energy sources and new investments.
Why biogas is a grid asset
Biogas differs from wind and solar energy in an important way: generation can be controlled because it does not depend directly on weather conditions. This makes biogas plants a natural complement to variable renewable sources in a power system with a growing share of intermittent capacity.
– Thanks to stable and controllable energy production and the use of local substrates, these sources can play an increasingly important role in balancing the national power system – Kubasiewicz added.
Biomethane and the regulatory push
The sector currently sees the strongest growth potential in biomethane, which is purified biogas and can be used, for example, in the gas network or in transport. On 14 July, the Council of Ministers adopted a draft amendment to the Renewable Energy Sources Act that includes an auction-based support mechanism for biomethane installations above 1 MW and new rules for direct gas pipelines.
– The direction of regulatory changes is clearly positive for the industry. Combined with growing interest from domestic and foreign investors, it creates the conditions for biogas and biomethane projects to move into implementation on a significantly larger scale than before – Kubasiewicz said.
MDI Energia is also changing its own business model. The company wants to develop competences as a contractor of installations and as an entity taking part in preparing investment projects.
– Experience from the last 12 years, gained in designing, building and commissioning dozens of biogas plants, has allowed us to create a team and competences that today we also use at the investment preparation stage – Kubasiewicz added.
Poland’s biogas market is still much smaller than the photovoltaics or wind energy segment, but investors point to its strategic relevance for the energy transition.
Source: WNP.PL, Photo: Tom Fisk / Pexels
