Geographic Distribution and Economic Potential of Biogas from Croatian Farming Sector

Farming sector, in general, is a big producer of manure and thereby also a big producer of greenhouse gasses. Methane production from animals on farms should be seen as an opportunity in utilizing green and sustainable energy which would contribute to the reduction of green house effect. We can say that Croatian farming sector is still pretty undeveloped if we compare it to the other EU member states. This is one of the legacies from past state where agriculture was not something worth of heavy investments. This was not only the case for Croatian farming sector, but also Croatian agriculture in general for the last twenty or more years. However in the last five years there were a lot of improvements and investments in agriculture and in the farming sector. More and more questions regarding energy issues and energy management on farms are becoming important. But this is still not enough if we want to use all the resources and potentials available. The fact that there are still no serious biogas plants in Croatia’s agriculture sector is just one of the indicators of underdevelopment of biogas utilization. All of this information with a promising increase in agricultural investing leads us to a question of total biogas potential for the farming sector in Croatia. Through this paper total biogas potential for Croatian farming sector will be shown with special emphasis on two most promising farming sectors: cows and pigs. After showing geographical distribution of that potential additional methodology of calculating economic aspect of utilizing biogas will be presented. One of the biggest barriers in utilizing biogas potential in Croatia are relatively small farms that are not capable of having economically viable biogas production. That is why community biogas plats will be important in increasing biogas utilization in Croatian farming sector. That is why a methodology for regional analysis of biogas potential of Croatian farming sector will be presented with cost assessment of community biogas power plants considering transport distances, transport costs and size of the power plants and family farms involved in community biogas production. The value of finding Croatia s farming sector biogas potential is also important since farms are consuming a lot of energy in their everyday operations and part of that energy consumption can be compensated from renewable energy source like biogas.