France encourages the building of biogas plants at the farms

The French Ministers of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy, and of Agriculture, Food and Forestry, Delphine Batho and Stéphane Le Foll presented, by the end of March, the plan "Energy Methanisation Autonomy Nitrogen" (EMAA).

The EMAA plans an "integral management of nitrogen", the assessment of the organic nitrogen, and the reduction of the French agriculture reliance on mineral nitrogen in order to attain a more competitive and a greener agriculture. This will reduce the cost of fertilisation, will limit the contamination due to nitrogen taking advantage of the organic nitrogen surplus, and will reduce the use of mineral fertilisers. Another goal of this plan is the development of a French methanisation plan (biogas plants), favouring collective systems and supply circuits.

The goal of the government is to develop in France, in year 2020, 1,000 biogas plants at the farms. This entails 2,000 million euros of investment and will generate 2,000 permanent jobs.

This plan includes:

• Announce during year 2013 "collective and integrated nitrogen management" projects;
• Optimization of the purchase rates for the electricity produced in the biogas plants in order to promote the projects of methanisation at the farms;
• The simplification of the administrative procedures for the development of biogas projects;
• Improvement of the structuring of ºthe sector within the framework of a project presented in the Program of future investments in order to create a national network concerning biogas equipments and within the framework of the valuation of digestates.