The importance of the economic evaluation of dispersed power generation in the pre-investment phase — agricultural biogas plants

In the case of dispersed power generation, such as renewable energy sources (RES), the investment risks are much higher than for fossil fuels. Higher are also the specific investment costs per MWel of installed power capacity. Therefore, the pre-investment phase for such projects should be elaborated with due diligence. In particular it refers to emerging market technologies, where there has been little or no record of their development in the past. Despite various support schemes, a professional feasibility study is not to be afforded by smaller investors. Therefore, other simplified tools must be made available for them, especially in the pre-investment phase. In this article agricultural biogas plants (ABP) were chosen to exemplify the complexity of the technoeconomic evaluation of dispersed generation in the pre-feasibility phase.