Renewables projects in peripheries

Determinants, challenges and perspectives of biogas plants – insights from Central European countries

Dados Bibliográficos

ID7997616
AutoresJustyna Chodkowska-Miszczuk (0000-0002-4436-475X), Stanislav Martinát (0000-0003-4060-2009), Marián Kulla (0000-0003-0188-4541), Ladislav Novotný (0000-0003-2012-1347)
Ano2020
Volume7
Fascículo1
Páginas362-381
Data de publicação2020-01-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoRegional Studies Regional Science (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 2168-1376 • E-ISSN: 2168-1376
EditoraTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/21681376.2020.1807399
OpenAlexW3082442722
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas6
Referências citadas40

Biogas energy has been introduced into Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs) through various incentives after their accession to the European Union in 2004. This paper contributes to an understanding of the determinants, challenges and perspectives of agricultural biogas plants in three CEECs (Poland, Slovakia, Czech Republic). Using a combination of quantitative (surveys) and qualitative (semi-structured interviews) methods, it particularly addresses varieties in public support for biogas sectors, how the relationships between biogas plants as new energy entities and their locations in rural peripheries are constructed, and how the operation of biogas plants influences local rural development. We found that as a result of various agriculture and agricultural policies in Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic in the second half of the 20th century, the preconditions for the incorporation of agricultural biogas plants into agriculture and rural space generally differ significantly. While in the Czech Republic and Slovakia agricultural biogas plants were usually established within large-scale agricultural farms, in Poland these are rather located off-farm. The most profound challenge for today’s biogas plants in all the CEECs studied lies in the transition from direct public incentives to a more self-sufficient business-oriented model focused on cooperation, participation and the involvement of local stakeholders in decision-making, as well as the energy utilization of locally generated agricultural waste and biowaste from households. By accommodation of these principles, agricultural biogas plants in CEECs might become a more useful and sustainable element of the rural energy transition

Accession · Agricultural economics · Agriculture · Biogas · Business · Common Agricultural Policy · Economic policy · Economics · European union · Geography · Incentive · Market economy · Natural resource economics · Renewable energy · Waste management · Electric Vehicles and Infrastructure · Energy and Environment Impacts · Engineering · Social Acceptance of Renewable Energy