COACH BioEnergy project partner SEVEn organized a seminar on the use of heat from biogas cogeneration plants on 24. Nov 2010 as a special event during the international conference Energy Efficiency Business Week. Among the attendees of the seminar taking place in Prague, Czech Republic were the representatives of the Czech Energy Regulatory Office, natural gas distributors, the Ministry of Agriculture, the European Biogas Association and equipment manufacturers.

In the first part of the seminar 3 presentations summarized the trends abroad, especially the technical development and legal mechanisms for the public support of biogas upgrading and injection into natural gas networks in Germany. In the Czech Republic the heat produced at biogas cogeneration units is not used outside the biogas plants (with rare exceptions), because the guaranteed electricity price is high enough for the profitability of the projects and in addition the investors often receive also investment subsidies.

The second part of the seminar was devoted to a discussion on possible ways how to adjust the policy of support in favour of better use of heat outside the plants. One option, which was generally accepted, would be to introduce a special bonus in the electricity tariff for the heat utilization via hot water supply or raw biogas transport to a separate location of the CHP unit close to heat consumption. However, no general consensus was achieved on the support of biogas upgrading and injection into gas networks, with the Energy Regulatory Office and natural gas distributors opposing the support. The attendees of the seminar recommend that the impacts of various support mechanisms on the end-price of electricity and natural gas should be evaluated first.