Biomethane, latest Pnrr auctions: allocated capacity doubled

The next auction is scheduled for 4 June 2024. After the last competitive procedure managed by the GSE, 132 projects of new and converted biomethane production plants were admitted, with a total production capacity of 58,119.32 standard cubic metres per hour. Eight of these projects, for a total of 18 megawatts, belong to Bioenerys, Snam's wholly-owned biomethane subsidiary, with the aim of developing the market by increasing production volumes and achieving decarbonisation targets.

The group led by Stefano Venier plays a dual role. On the one hand, Snam Rete Gas facilitates the interconnection of plants to the grid and, to date, 183 connection requests have been received from producers for projects that have already been approved or submitted in line with the objectives set by the NRP and Pniec. On the other hand, through Bioenerys, it develops, builds and operates plants with a focus ranging from the organic fraction of municipal solid waste to the increasingly strategic agricultural feedstock.

A crucial front, therefore, within Snam's business, which, as envisaged in the strategic plan presented at the end of January, aims to invest EUR 400 million in the commissioning of plants to reach a total capacity of 80 megawatts and an expected production of around 135 million cubic metres per year by 2027. While, at the end of 2023, the group could already count on a solid platform of 36 plants operating in nine regions - of which 10 from Forsu (organic fraction of solid urban waste) and 26 from agricultural resources - with about 41 megawatts of biomethane and biogas capacity, reinforcing its role as a leading operator on an industrial scale.

Italy is among the fastest-growing biomethane markets in Europe: in fact, the sector has grown from one plant in 2018 to around 80 operating plants by the end of 2023 with a production of over 550 million standard cubic metres per year. A further boost to the development of the sector should come, as is known, from the NRP, which allocates 1.92 billion euro to this component. Resources that will be disbursed, as mentioned, downstream of ad hoc competitive procedures - five of which are planned for 2022-2024 (and possibly 2025 and 2026), through the granting of capital subsidies (equal to a maximum of 40% of the expenses incurred) and energy account incentives (incentive tariffs applied to the net production of biomethane). In the first competitive procedure 29,978 standard cubic metres per hour were awarded (for 60 plants), in the second 25,881 (for 51 plants).

However, as repeatedly reported by operators and sector associations, there is no shortage of difficulties in the access mechanisms because producers often complain of the impossibility of arriving at the competitive procedure with the necessary requirements, i.e. obtaining authorisation to build and operate the plant. This is due to the cumbersome nature of the bureaucratic procedures provided for by the local authorities and the consequent delay in obtaining the necessary authorisations. Not to mention the frequent discrepancies between regional regulations and planning that are not in line with national and European laws, to which must be added the problems linked to the widespread Nimby phenomenon that can further slow down the process.