British Embassy in Poland participates in a conference on landfill biogas
Martin Oxley (Director, UK Trade & Investment, Poland) spoke about UK experience in landfill biogas at a conference on 11 June.
Held in Łubna near Warsaw, the conference was co-organised by the Polish Renewable Energy Chamber of Commerce and three leading companies in the field of landfill biogas, ENER-G Polska Sp.z.o.o. (UK), Vireo Energy Polska Sp. z.o.o. (Swedish) and Hedeselskabet Sp.z.o.o. (Danish). The event had an honorary patronage of all 3 embassies and the municipality of Góra Kalwaria.
Welcoming notes, stressing the importance of biogas production at landfill sites, were delivered by one of Poland’s top experts in landfill biogass, Piotr Mańczarski PhD (Warsaw Technical University). Dariusz Zieliński, Mayor of Góra Kalwaria, stressed the importance of landfill biogas investments. Representatives of the Danish and British embassies, Ambassador Steen Hommel and Martin Oxley, provided insights into landfill biogas experience in their countries.
Speaking on behalf of Robin Barnett (British Ambassador to Poland), Martin Oxley outlined why the UK was able to achieve quite a substantial success in this field, with a couple of dozen of landfill biogas production plants all over the country. The answer is simple: the basic drivers were policies with fixed targets and a good system of incentives.
The conference aimed not only to promote landfill biogas as a renewable and sustainable energy source, but also empathised the need of good regulations to allow the industry to thrive in Poland. The audience engaged in a lively discussion with the speakers, which was a definite merit of the conference. The final points from the debate will be sent to the to the Polish Ministry of Economy, who is finalising legislative work on the Renewable Energy Act.