Autumn 2023 EN

BIOGAS JOURNAL | AUTUMN_2023 ENGLISH ISSUE
for the sharp drop in milk prices. The digester of the
Biogest plant has a solid concrete roof and an outside
gas tank.
Srdjan Miljanic is happy with the technology. With the
excrements from the barns and 20,000 tons of silage
grown on 400 hectares, he achieved an operational capacity
of 96 to 97 percent. “Last year, we generated
8,400 megawatt-hours of electrical energy,” the plant
manager proudly recounts. This year, an additional 150
hectares of silage are required to operate the facility at
a capacity between 70 and 80 percent.
Additional purchasing is not an alternative. At around
95 euros per ton, the market price has quadrupled.
“This year, we’re just struggling to survive,” says Srdjan
Miljanic raising his shoulders in resignation. Fortunately,
he can at least replace the mineral fertilizer with
residues from the biogas plant on 250 hectares. With
price increases of 300 percent due to the Ukraine war,
no small advantage.
Auction Process Hampers Biogas Plant
Expansion
Initially, the Serbian government had created favorable
conditions for biogas plants like Agro Plus Energy,
offering a guaranteed feed-in tariff of 19.3 cents per
kilowatt-hour for twelve years, along with an annual
inflation adjustment based on the Euro. However, conditions
have changed since the introduction of the Renewable
Energy Law in 2021, which implemented an
auction process.
So far, there are 34 plants in Serbia in 2022, another
82 projects are in the pipeline, including many operators,
who still wanted to secure the old feed-in tariff.
The question of whether that can be achieved is very
uncertain. “We don’t know yet how the new rule will
work,” says Lidija Carević from the Serbian Biogas
Association in Belgrade. Together with her associate
Goran Knežević, she welcomes us in the rooms of the
association on the 19th floor of a new business tower in
Novi Beograd, a district of Belgrade.
The view from the window is over a district built after
World War II and the confluence of the Sava and
Danube rivers. The grandiose panorama is deceptive.
The Serbian Biogas Association, founded ten years
ago, merely has a desk in a co-working space at this
lofty height, which acts as a cost-effective measure.
Antje Kramer is here on a business assignment from
the German Biogas Association. There is a partnership
between the two associations, supported by the German
Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development
(BMZ) and the climate partnership between
Germany and Serbia, as part of the Balkan country’s
preparations for accession to the EU.
Farm Manager Srdjan Miljanica at Agro plus Energy:
“Last year, we fed in 8,400 of megawatt hours of electrical
energy,” says the operations manager with satisfaction.
Svetozar Miletic in Sombor: This picture shows the
agricultural operation Agro plus Energy, with a biogas
plant built by the Austrian manufacturer Biogest.
So far, Serbia has produced almost 70 percent of
electrical power by means of old coal-fired power
plants. The aim is to change that. The partnership
with the association is immensely helpful, whether it
is for knowledge transfer, public relations, or support
in lobbying efforts. “We have become important contacts
for policymakers,” says Lidija Carević. And that
is urgently needed.
A new government has just been elected in Serbia. A lot
is still in a state of flux, or to put it more clearly:
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