A group of three organisations backing the development of biogas has released a national strategy aimed at increasing Swedish biogas production nearly eight-fold by 2030.
The National biogas strategy, released last week, was produced by gas user trade association Energigas Sverige, gas network owner/operator Swedegas, and the municipality of Region Skåne.
Sweden currently produces about 1.7TWh of biogas annually, with more than 50% going to transport related applications. The report calls for measures that would increase output to 15TWh by 2030.
By this time, the organisations behind the report see the transport sector utilising up to 12TWh of biogas per year. The remaining 3TWh of annual capacity would support industry, according to the report.
Measures suggested include subsidies for biogas production, giving biogas powered buses the same support as electric ones and extending a planned tax reduction for biogas production beyond 2020.
Sweden is currently awaiting the outcome of a European Union state aid investigation over its biogas-for-transport tax exemption. It plans to introduce the move next January, but run it only until 2020.
The report also calls for the introduction of an investment fund to support the production of all advanced biofuels. A plan to end lower tax rates for company cars run on, either natural gas or biogas, should continue post-2019 when it is due to expire. Biogas should also be "compulsory" as part of quota system of petrol blending.
Region Skåne is close to achieving 90% biogas use in its buses and is currently targeting 100%.
