Since then, the electricity price has been well above the subsidy limit of 110 euros per MWh almost all the time, with peaks exceeding 400 euros per MWh. “Our mills can now run there without subsidy,” says De Groot. “And if I look at the longer-term expectations, we won’t need a subsidy in all of 2022 and even 2023.”
If the electricity price remains so high, it could well be hundreds of millions of euros that will not have to be paid out in subsidies in 2022, says a spokesperson for the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate. Everything that is saved goes back into the subsidy pot. “If we can get more projects done with less subsidy and save money, then it will remain available for climate projects in the future,” says Minister for Energy and Climate Jetten.
peak prices
Gas has also been experiencing peak prices for months. “The direct replacements for natural gas such as biogas and geothermal energy are competitive at current prices,” says NVDE chairman Van der Gaag.
This does not mean that Van der Gaag expects that massive new projects will now be set up that can be done without a subsidy. “The investments will take place over decades. I do not expect the gas price to remain high for that long. At the beginning of the corona crisis, gas was still almost free.”
Moreover, biogas entrepreneurs are already producing less at the high prices that producers of wind or solar power receive. “The rates are high enough to be able to do without a subsidy,” says Ids Schaap, of biogas company Agradu. Unlike De Groot’s wind farms, however, Schaap does not sell its energy at daily prices, but on the basis of long-term contracts. “As a result, we have only secured part of our gas at really high rates.” The rest of the production is still tied to older contracts with lower prices.
In addition, entrepreneurs with fermentation installations are faced with higher raw material prices. They use not only manure, but also residual flows from the (animal) food industry in their digesters. Due to the high raw material prices, the industry is more economical with raw materials. And so there is less waste left for biogas. Purchasing extra fertilizer is difficult because of the required permits.
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