The EIB accepts a Polish biogas cogeneration programme worth PLN 1 billion

The European Investment Bank (EIB) has accepted the Polish priority programme "High-efficiency cogeneration from biogas produced from biomass, including municipal waste", as announced by NFOŚiGW on 26 March 2025. The budget is PLN 1 billion from the Modernisation Fund: up to PLN 400 million of grants and up to PLN 600 million of loans. The EIB's acceptance was a condition for launching the call, because the bank is an institution supporting the Modernisation Fund.

Programme parameters

• Grant: up to 40% of eligible costs, paid as reimbursement.
• Loan: up to 100% of eligible costs.
• Equity contribution: in project finance at least 15% of costs.
• Technical condition: biogas fermentation installations generating electricity and heat in high-efficiency cogeneration with a total capacity of at least 1 MW; support covers the construction of new installations and the expansion and upgrading of existing ones, and beneficiaries are businesses.
• Deadlines: the call was planned for the turn of 2025/2026, agreements by the end of 2028, the programme until the end of 2030, eligible costs from 1 September 2024 to 30 September 2030.
• Targets: at least 14 installations with a total capacity of at least 32 MW, production of at least 40 million m³ of biogas a year and recycling of at least 320,000 tonnes of waste a year.

The draft programme was put to public consultation until 30 January 2025.

Significance for the industry in Poland

The programme differs from the biomethane programme: it does not concern injecting gas into the grid, but cogeneration, and its logic is linked to waste management (recycling of bio-waste). Installations with a capacity of at least 1 MW are, in Polish conditions, already fairly large biogas plants, which can be fed with municipal bio-waste and waste from the food industry. For municipalities and municipal companies this is one of the few possibilities for financing a fermentation installation.

The two-stage nature is noteworthy: first the bank's acceptance, then the formal call. In practice, more than a year will pass from the announcement of the programme (mid-2024) to the planned call (turn of 2025/2026), which for projects in the preparation phase is a significant risk – capital prices, equipment costs and connection conditions change during that time.

What next

After the EIB's acceptance, NFOŚiGW will prepare the call rules. A condition for paying out the first tranche is to be a final building permit or an effective notification, and the final environmental decision must be obtained no later than before the grant agreement is signed. Investors should therefore already be conducting environmental proceedings and applying for connection conditions, and municipalities should check whether collection systems will provide the required share of bio-waste in the feedstock.