United Kingdom

United Kingdom is second in biogas production in Europe. The national regulatory environment is supportive of bioenergy as UK has recently introduced significant promotional measures for biomethane giving domestic biogas market a significant push. In fact, the market uptake of biogas has been remarkable within the last ten years. As a result, UK is considered one of the most promising countries in terms of biogas development. However, community bioenergy/biogas in the UK is still in its infancy, despite the fact that UK’s community energy strategy is already in place aiming to support and develop more similar projects. Although UK’s community energy strategy is not tailored to the needs of biogas systems, it could serve as the basis for developing a biogas-specific strategy. In addition, the stimulation of other types of community renewable energy could also be beneficial for the promotion of biogas communities, since biogas can provide demand-driven supply to counter-balance the power fluctuations of solar and wind energy systems.

ISABEL will focus on the region of Yorkshire and the Humber and in particular on Humber, a region with rural and urban parts and a population of about 5.3 million. Since the region is responsible for 27% of UK’s CO2 emissions it plays a significant role in achieving the UK’s carbon reduction targets. Moreover, the Humber is also host of a range of renewable energy installations, contributes to the country’s low carbon strategy through bio-based developments in the energy sector and has a long expertise in waste-to-resource innovations.

In the link you can read about the ISABEL findings in the region of Yorkshire and the Humber, in United Kingdom.

In further detail, the document summarizes the following aspects regarding the aforementioned region:

• Mapping of the biogas landscape and specificities in the region.
• Investigation and analysis of the local communities’ and potential newcomers’ perceptions on biogas, its societal benefits and implications and the opportunities and regarding their involvement and active engagement.
• Selection of a set of appropriate approaches, methods and tools towards the creation and/or enhancement of sustainable “Biogas Communities” in the region.

Here you can find out more about the current status of the biogas communities in UK.

In addition, you can access a set of tools that could be relevant for biogas and community energy endeavors in UK.