Weltec Biopower builds three biogas plants in Greece

German company Weltec Biopower has three more biogas plants in its portfolio in Greece. When it finishes expanding the one in Serres, they will have a combined electricity generation capacity of 2.25 MW.

Together with its Greek cooperation partner Tetoros Machinery, Weltec Biopower has built three more biogas-fired systems in Greece. Two are in the Epirus region in the country’s northwest. The facility in Arta has 500 kW while the capacity of the unit in Ioannina, which is scheduled to go into production in the fall, is 1 MW.

The 250 kW combined heat and power plant in Serres, in Central Macedonia, is undergoing an upgrade to 750 kW, said the company, based in Vechta in northwest Germany.

Biogas sector is leaning on subsidies

As in many other intensive farming areas, the biomass supply in Epirus is higher than the processing capacity of the existing plants, the firm pointed out. It said biogas projects and upgrades are profitable, especially because they are eligible for subsidies.

The Arta unit takes in 150 tons of cattle slurry and 50 tons of dry chicken manure per day. At the site in Ioannina, the daily input is 100 tons of cattle slurry and 30 tons of dry chicken manure. In Serres, a substrate mix of 40 tons of cattle manure and 10 tons of energy plants enters the stainless steel digester every day, Weltec Biopower added.

At all three sites, the materials are first sent to a prestorage tank, where agitators mix the substrates. The two digesters in Arta each hold 4,436 cubic meters, the one in Ioannina has 3,993 cubic meters and the tank in Serres measures 4,905 cubic meters. They are all made of high-grade stainless steel, process engineer Tobias Peuker said and explained that the fermentation residue can be used as fertilizer.

Substantial portfolio in Greece, Cyprus

The company built 12 more facilities in Greece for clients, according to a map on its website. It said it was involved in more than half of all such projects in the country.

As for the rest of the region that Balkan Green Energy News tracks, Weltec Biogas commissioned a 250 kW system in 2016 in Varaždin in Croatia’s north and four units in Cyprus. It also operates such facilities and offers energy trading services.