On September 22-23 the Fifth International Conference «Biomass for Energy» took place in Kyiv.
Plenty of important and interesting questions were discussed there. The representatives of different foreign and Ukrainian organizations tried to demonstrate tendencies, possibilities and prospects in this sphere to the audience.
Anna Kuznetsova explained currently relevant question of investment attractiveness of biogas production in Ukraine. Her presentation «Is it profitable to produce biogas in Ukraine?» was focused on the estimation of profitability for investors of biogas production at the plants of electrical capacity 0.5, 1 and 3 MW/h from silage corn, pig and cattle manure and chicken dung.
It was demonstrated that with capacity increase, profitability of biogas plants increases too (economies of scales work), and manure is the most profitable feedstock. As for silage corn and chicken dung, the profitability of biogas production from them (in case the discount rate for credits is 28%) is unprofitable; in case the discount rate is 12% - lowly profitable. Such conclusions are based on financial characteristics of net present value (NPV), internal rate of return (IRR) and payback period. The calculations are based on the assumptions of green tariff, current tariffs and prices, German technology and not including by-products profits (from biofertilizers). The questions of investment attractiveness and also of state costs and the estimation of biogas potential from silage corn, pig and cattle manure and chicken dung are described in the paper. The authors of the paper are Anna Kuznetsova, Kateryna Kutsenko and Dr. Heinz Strubenhoff.
