Biogas in Portugal: status and public policies

Abstract

Portugal has recently implemented a number of measures and monitoring mechanisms that seek to promote renewable energy sources as a way of protecting the environment and assuring a sustainable development. In its policy for renewable energies, 39% of the electricity from renewable energy sources was defined as target for 2010. Biogas arises as a useful energy source by its direct conversion into heat and electricity or by injection into a natural gas network. This work reviews the Portuguese public policies on biogas, the current status of biogas production and its potential implementation as a relevant energy source. In Portugal, over the last decade there has been a big growth of the biogas produced from anaerobic digestion, both in electricity production (67 GWh in 2008) and installed power (12.4 MW in 2008). However, the current installed capacity and energy produced from this renewable source does not reflect its huge potential.