Green Genius CEO interview about Poland’s renewable energy sector
April 2020
Green Genius CEO Ruslan Sklepovič interview for Poland’s Energy Industry 2020 report.
You have numerous solar projects underway and generally this sector is booming in Poland. What is fueling the growth in your view?
We are indeed witnessing what some people call a “renaissance of solar” in Europe. Just in 2019, the capacity installed grew by 100% (from 8 GW to 16 GW). Why? The answer is relatively simple: in the past renewable energy was dependent on state subsidies which were useful, but also fueled skepticism that this sector cannot stand on its own.
The growth now is driven directly by the market, in Poland as well as elsewhere in Europe. Renewable energy has in fact become cheaper than conventional energy sources.
Imagine you are a decision maker assessing a path that is cheaper, healthier and does not pose any threats to the environment – the question to be asked is not “why” but rather “why not”.
The situation seems to be very different with biogas where very few initiatives stand out. Will you please explain your interest in this field, and why it is not receiving more attention in Poland?
PV projects tend to be very straightforward – once you finish development you hire maintenance and wait for the revenue to come in. Biogas is a completely different story. You deal with a complex value chain and a whole new level of effort: raw materials are coming in daily, logistics are fairly complicated, it requires maintenance, teams of biologists etc. It is also less scalable.
The reason we are so excited about biogas is because from an environmental perspective it is an absolute leader. If you build 1 MW of solar you will generate 1000 hours of electricity, whereas 1 MW of biogas generates eight times more.
And it does not end here: when you collect biological waste you extract methane, which would otherwise go into the atmosphere – every tonne of methane equals 21 tonnes of CO2. So when you calculate your footprint the difference is striking.
What do you find to be the most common misconceptions related to biogas?
One myth that was created is that biogas competes with the food industry, because it is using corn silage as the organic material. If it uses land which can be used for food production we see it less sustainable. We see biogas as organic waste’s sustainable treatment – the agricultural sector generates considerable waste and this is the primary resource for biogas plant. If anything, biogas adds an element of sanitation in the village and reduces the smell.
A second misconception is that biogas projects are too complicated and it is difficult to implement high quality project. However, everything depends on the knowledge you have accumulated in this area. If it is your main business, from the morning to night you think how to make it work, who can provide materials, you engage with municipalities and so on. The truth is that it can be done, just that you need to put in considerable effort. The truth is, we have quite a few biogas power plants developers but not all of them are professionals in the field or it is not their main business activity. Because of this the quality of these projects also differs.
Read the whole interview here.
You can find Poland’s Energy Industry 2020 report here.
