Improving the profitability of anaerobic digestion: is the public support framework compatible with participation in the day-ahead electricity market?

Gwen Willeghems and Jeroen Buysse

Renewable Energy, 2019, vol. 139, issue C, 560-572

Abstract: There is an increasing need for an alternative energy source within the electricity market to counterbalance the intermittent supply from renewable energy sources as their share in the market continues to grow. Anaerobic digestion could play a role in fulfilling this need through participation in the day-ahead electricity market. The potential for anaerobic digestion operators in Flanders, Belgium, and the impact of the current Flemish support policy framework on this potential are investigated by developing a non-linear optimization model that maximizes profits for the complete anaerobic digestion system, taking into account the current policy framework and a proposed alternative one. Our analysis indicates that there is a potential profit to be made for anaerobic digestion operators in the day-ahead market. However, the current framework of public support is not conducive to their participation. By allowing the same amount of support to be spread over a longer period of time, the use of flexible electricity production in the anaerobic digestion sector could be stimulated, and the profitability of this sector increased.

Keywords: Biogas plant; Gas storage; Electricity market; Flexible bioenergy; Non-linear programming; Techno-economic analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960148119302599
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:renene:v:139:y:2019:i:c:p:560-572

DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2019.02.105

Access Statistics for this article

Renewable Energy is currently edited by Soteris A. Kalogirou and Paul Christodoulides

More articles in Renewable Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().