8. Case study 3: Nature Energy

The powerhouse developer of renewable energy says biogas is the final link in the chain that can deliver a green transition

Nature Energy is Denmark’s largest producer of biogas. It owns and operates 10 biogas plants and is in the process of establishing additional plants and expanding existing ones, such as Månsson and Midtfyn (see below for tech spec).

At the Korskro biogas plant the company has started to capture CO₂ for use in the food and beverage industry. This further reduces CO₂ emissions from the biogas plant improving sustainability and again highlights that biogas is an exemplar of the circular economy in practice, beyond energy, transport fuel and agriculture.

Trine Birgitte Dalsgaard, Chief Business Development Manager with Nature Energy, says, ‘Biogas has every opportunity to be the third leg of the green transition, together with sun and wind, all over the world.’

Denmark is ideally placed to capitalise on biogas. Its gas grid has vast caverns which can store one third of annual consumption. ‘The storage capability of Denmark’s grid is 85,000 times that of Elon Musk’s battery. The Danish grid is on a completely different scale; it is a super way to have backup for wind and solar and that of course needs to be green. It is the golden opportunity for the gas grid.’

Despite uncertainty surrounding ongoing support for the sector beyond 2022, when the current subsidy regime comes to an end, Nature Energy remains bullish with its expansion plans.

‘At the moment it is hard to see where the support for AD should come from due to its value to multiple sectors,’ Trine adds. ‘The versatility of gas means there’s lots of opportunities to support it; gate prices for household food waste; transport displacement; renewable obligations.’

‘Currently we’re working fast in a slow manner,’ she says. ‘We’d love to build more. There is so much more to do. There are two projects we are looking at in south Denmark, on the islands of Lolland and Falster, where there is no gas grid.

‘There are two sugar beet plants, one using heavy fuel (coal) and can’t electrify. They are talking about alternative sources of energy and two options are being explored, either to ship or truck in gas or build a gas grid there. It is super interesting that we are talking about extending the gas grid in Lolland and Falster. The grid would have to use 50% biogas, which is made interesting by the fact that the gas grid could be getting expanded due to renewables.’

The template for future development is hinged on economies of scale – i.e. the centralised model, with the standardisation and modularisation of designs, ‘so we don’t start from scratch every time’, says Trine. ‘Standardisation and modularisation deliver operational excellence so we aim to make sites as identical as possible, although internationally it is not reasonable to expect you can do the same in every geography.’

Another area where the company sees room for improvement is through the adoption of big data. ‘Greater surveillance of operations,’ says Trine. ‘We have only just touched the possibilities of monitoring via SCADA systems. There’s much more to be achieved.’

Being able to take all organic wastes, locally sourced within a 25km radius is the vision. Nature Energy’s CEO Ole Hvelplund envisages a biogas plant every 50km around the world.

Within Denmark the near-term goal of the sector is to reach 50% biomethane in the grid by 2025, and 100% by 2040. ‘Fifty per cent is the tipping point. That is when people will talk about biogas as they talk about wind and solar, recognising wastes as the primary source of gas and not the fossil gas.’

It is then the circular economy as a reality will be cemented.