Regional Diversification of Potential, Production and Efficiency of Use of Biogas and Biomass in Poland

Abstract

Energy obtained from renewable sources is an important element of the sustainable development strategy of the European Union and its member states. The aim of this research is, therefore, to assess the potential and use of renewable energy sources and their effectiveness from the regional perspective in Poland. The research covered the years 2012 and 2018. The diversification of production and potential of renewable energy sources was defined on the basis of biogas and biomass. Calculations made using the data envelopment analysis (DEA) method showed that, in 2012, only three voivodeships achieved the highest efficiency in terms of the use of biogas and biomass resources; in 2018, this number increased to four. Comparing the effective units in 2012 and 2018, it can be seen that their efficiency frontier moved upwards by 56% in terms of biogas and 21% in terms of to biomass. Despite a large relative increase in the production of heat from biogas by 99% compared to the production of heat from biomass by 38%, the efficiency frontier for biogas did not change considerably. It was found that the resources of solid biomass are used far more intensively than the resources of biogas. However, in the case of biogas, a significant increase in the utilization of the production potential was observed: from 3.3% in 2012 to 6.4% in 2018, whereas in the same years, the utilization of solid biomass production potential remained at the same level (15.3% in 2012, 15.4% in 2018). It was also observed that, at the level of voivodeships, the utilization of biogas and biomass production potential is negatively correlated with the size of this potential. The combined potential of solid biomass and biogas can cover the demand of each of the studied regions in Poland in terms of thermal energy. The coverage ranges from 104% to 1402%. The results show that when comparing biomass and biogas, the production of both electricity and heat was dominated by solid biomass. Its high share occurred especially in voivodeships characterized by a high share of forest area and a low potential for biogas production (Lubuskie Voivodeship, Zachodniopomorskie Voivodeship).

The Role of Renewable Energy Sources in Alleviating Energy Poverty in Households in Poland

“…biomass in the form of briquettes, pellets, or wood chips. An argument that additionally supports the use of biomass boilers is the fact that the CO 2 generated during its combustion is absorbed by vegetation and does not accumulate in the atmosphere [78]. Another solution for the heating system can be a heat pump [79,80].…”

The Use of the Local and Regional Potential in Building Energy Independence—Polish and Ukraine Case Study

“…The share of RES in energy production is still small, but at the same time, in most regions, there are large possibilities of obtaining additional energy from biogas. In this respect, there is a large spatial differentiation both in terms of the size of biogas potential and the share of renewable energy in the energy balance of individual regions [62]. The impact of the basic potential of biogas (taking into account only electricity production in the summer months) and its increase based on the use of wastelands on the share of renewable energy sources in electricity consumption is shown in Figure 8.…”

Biogas Production: Evaluation and Possible Applications

“…On the other hand, its importance is steadily maintained in the developing countries in Asia and Africa where a lot of low-scale anaerobic digesters are developed and used in the household [10,11]. Currently, biogas production is popular in Europe and North America as a tool for simultaneous treatment of waste in agriculture and food industry and energy production at the same time to maintain these activities [10, 12,13]. Landfill gases containing methane are also the reason for concern, since the emitted methane has a 25 times stronger greenhouse effect than carbon dioxide.…”

“…As a volume, the annual world production of biogas was about 59 billion cubic meters in 2013. Almost half of this amount was produced in the European Union [10,12,14,15] and it is growing considerably during the last decade [13].…”