Building permit for a biogas plant step by step: from design to occupancy permit

A building permit for a biogas plant is obtained after preparing a complete set of documents: the environmental decision (if required), confirmation of compliance with the local plan or a decision on development conditions, a site development design, an architectural and building design with agreements and a declaration of the right to dispose of the property. Below is the order of actions under the Construction Law as at February 2024.

Step by step

1. Siting and the environmental decision. The local plan or WZ must permit the investment; the DUŚ is issued before the building permit (Article 72 of the Environmental Impact Assessment Act). The architectural and building authority later checks the compliance of the design with the conditions of this decision (Article 35 of the Construction Law).
2. The design. A biogas plant is a set of facilities: digestion and post-digestion tanks, a reception hall, a substrate store, a cogeneration or upgrading station, gas installations, ancillary buildings. The site development design and the architectural and building design are prepared by persons with the relevant qualifications; for some installations (gas, electrical, fire safety) specialist disciplines are needed.
3. Agreements and opinions. Permits, agreements and opinions required by specific provisions are attached to the application (Articles 32–33). This concerns, among other things, fire, sanitary and water-law requirements and facilities zoned for explosion hazard.
4. The application for a building permit – with the designs, the declaration of the right to dispose of the property for construction purposes, the WZ decision (if required) and the permits required by separate provisions.
5. The proceedings. The parties are the investor and the owners, perpetual usufructuaries and managers of properties in the area of impact of the facility. The authority checks compliance with the plan or WZ, environmental requirements, technical and building regulations and the completeness of the design.
6. The decision. If the authority does not issue the decision within 65 days (45 days for an agricultural biogas plant meeting the conditions of the special act), a higher-level authority imposes on it a penalty of PLN 500 for each day of delay; the provision does not apply to projects with an environmental impact assessment or Natura 2000.
7. Commencement of works. Before starting, the building supervision authority and the designer must be notified, and preparatory works may be carried out only on the area covered by the permit.

Changes during construction

A significant departure from the approved design or the conditions of the permit is permissible only after obtaining a decision amending the building permit (Article 36a). In practice this concerns a change of tank location, size of facilities, process layout or scope of cogeneration.

Acceptance: notification or occupancy permit

The notification or application is accompanied by, among other things, the construction log, the site manager's declaration of conformity of the execution with the design, protocols of tests and checks of the installations, and, where relevant, the decision permitting operation of a technical device subject to technical supervision, survey documentation and confirmation of acceptance of the connections. In biogas plants, the protocols of tests of gas, electrical and lightning protection installations and the explosion protection documentation are important. Pressure vessels and technical devices are subject to separate technical supervision requirements.

Typical mistakes

• Starting works before the final building permit decision or outside the scope of the design.
• Lack of a decision amending the permit after a significant change of technology.
• Incomplete acceptance documentation: missing protocols, declarations and technical supervision decisions.
• Confusing the acceptance mode with the category of the facility: wrong classification of the facility delays commissioning.
• Failure to take explosion protection requirements into account in the design.

What to do first

• Commission a concept and a preliminary schedule of decisions: environmental, plan/WZ, connection, building permit.
• Choose a designer with experience in biogas and plan the disciplines (gas, electrical, fire safety).
• Ask the authority about the categories of facilities and the acceptance mode.
• Check whether the investment qualifies for the special act on agricultural biogas plants (shorter deadlines).

The special act on agricultural biogas plants

Since 11 September 2023 the Act of 13 July 2023 on facilitating the preparation and implementation of investments in agricultural biogas plants has been in force. It concerns eligible entities (including farmers running a farm, groups and organisations of agricultural producers, cooperatives, some food processors) and agricultural biogas plants of limited scale: installed electrical capacity of up to 3.5 MW, thermal capacity of up to 10.5 MW, annual production of agricultural biogas of up to 14 million m³ or of biomethane of up to 8.4 million m³, on a defined list of substrates. The building permit application is then accompanied by a document confirming the entity's status and a declaration of meeting the conditions under pain of criminal liability. The effect is, among other things, a shorter deadline for issuing the decision (45 days instead of 65). After commissioning, for five years no activity other than producing agricultural biogas, electricity, heat or biomethane may be carried on in such a biogas plant, and the transfer of the property or the biogas plant to an ineligible entity is restricted during that time.

Participants in the construction process

The investor appoints a site manager and, if necessary, investor's supervision inspectors, and the designer exercises author's supervision. The manager keeps the construction log and submits the declaration of conformity of the execution with the design. In a biogas plant, where tanks, gas and electrical installations are interconnected, it is worth establishing in advance who coordinates the disciplines and partial acceptances, because it is precisely documentation gaps that most often delay the transition from construction to use.

This text is for information only and does not constitute legal advice; before an investment or formal decision, check the current wording of the legislation and consult a lawyer or the relevant authority.