Italy biomethane production to receive €300m boost

Global energy transition tech developer Solarig will invest more than €300m into developing at least 20 biomethane plants in Italy by 2030.

The company, which is headquartered in Spain, has been active in Italy for more than 15 years and plans to expand its biomethane business through its renewable gases division, Biorig.

In total, the plants are expected to produce around 1 TWh (terawatt hour) of biomethane per year, which is the equivalent of 90 million cubic metres.

Manuel Alonso, Managing Director of Biorig, said it chose Italy because of its firm commitment to biomethane.

“[It has] a clear and flexible regulatory framework, a clear concern for organic waste management, and a well-defined vision of the agronomic advantages of biofertilisers,” he said.

Under its biomethane strategy, Italy aims to increase national biomethane production to six billion cubic metres by 2030.

“Biomethane must play a key role in the National Energy Strategy because it is a renewable, programmable, flexible energy capable of delivering a potential of 10 billion cubic metres by 2030, of which at least 8 from agricultural feedstocks,” said Piero Gattoni, President of Consorzio Italiano Biogas.

The project also fits with Solarig’s latest Strategic Plan 2025–2028, which focuses on technological diversification as a response to the challenges of the energy transition.

Part of this plan involves rolling out more than 20 projects under development in Spain that will generate around 3 TWh per year of biomethane.

“Our goal is to become one of the leading biomethane producers in Europe, and to make this activity one of Solarig’s strategic pillars in the coming years, alongside the development of renewable energy projects,” said Alonso.

One of these projects includes Turboleta SAF, a €1.15bn sustainable aviation fuel production plant being developed in Teruel, Spain. The plant will have a production capacity of more than 75,000 tonnes of SAF per year, according to Solarig.

Biomethane commitments continue to make headway in Italy. Earlier this month, German waste treatment company Koster launched a plant near Milan capable of treating 50,000 tonnes per year of organic waste, feeding around 700 standard cubic metres of biomethane per hour into the grid.

In January, a subsidiary of Anaergia signed a deal worth €100m with Techbau to build five biomethane plants across Southern Italy. All five are expected to provide renewable biomethane to the country’s gas pipeline grid by the end of 2025.