Germany looks at biogas anew

Biogas, long said to be nothing more than a stinky energy source, is slowly but constantly losing its unfavorable image, gaining the respect of politicians and industry in Germany.

Juehnde, a sleepy town with just 800 inhabitants in Lower Saxony, is energy-independent: it is running exclusively on biogas, which can be made from agricultural waste products or plants such as maize and corn
Six of the town`s 10 farms produce energy crops, and a local power plant ferments those into biogas, warming Juehnde homes, powering Juehnde businesses.

The biogas plant produces double the amount the town needs, some 4 million kilowatt-hours, worth more than $850,000. The project, which was launched by town officials and a German university research institution four years ago, now saves Juehnde`s citizens, who don`t have to buy the expensive oil and gas from outside, between $600 and $700 a year. Already, other towns are considering similar projects.

The latest move that facilitated the political ascendance of biogas was when German Chancellor Angela Merkel earlier this year invited Ulrich Schmock, the founder and head of Schmock Biogas, the largest German company specializing in the renewable energy source, to take part in the energy summit.

The summit was to lay out Germany`s future energy mix, and it assembled politicians, experts from the energy industry and scientists.

Monsters and Critics