Slovakia: top-ups for biogas plants are ending. Amendment to Act 309/2009 and the end-2025 permit deadline

Slovak biogas plants that entered the top-up scheme in 2010–2013 are losing support: the top-up to the electricity price, granted for 15 years under Act 309/2009, expires for most installations in 2025–2028. The Slovak Biogas Association (SBA) presented on 25 November 2025, at a CZ Biom webinar, the state of work on an amendment to Acts 251/2012 and 309/2009, which is meant to set the way forward for modernised installations.

What the top-up is and how much it was

The Slovak support scheme is based on a top-up (doplatok) to the market price of energy, granted for 15 years. According to SBA, support for installations commissioned in 2010–2013 was about EUR 107–149/MWh for installations with a capacity of 1 MW; the presentation gives, among others, a value of EUR 148.72/MWh for 2010 commissionings, and the lowest item is EUR 107.26/MWh. Converted, EUR 148.72/MWh is about PLN 630/MWh at a rate of about PLN 4.24 per euro (indicative, 2025).

At present 88 biogas plants and 2 biomethane plants are active, and three new biogas plants (processing waste and animal by-products) are planned. In 2025 SBA brings together 59 installations.

What the amendment provides

According to SBA, the amendment changes the conditions for extending support to modernised and reconstructed installations: the top-up may be granted only if the building permit was issued by 31 December 2025 and the investment was completed by 31 December 2028. At present operating support covers only high-efficiency cogeneration (VÚKVET): for a new source of up to 1 MW the rate is, according to SBA, EUR 201.38/MWh (ÚRSO Decree No. 154/2024).

SBA points to problematic provisions: the act does not provide for industrial use of heat, including by the same entity; the proposed provision (§ 3c(5)), under which at least 60% of total heat supply is to be heat for public customers or for industrial use outside centralised heat supply, hinders modernisation. Among its demands SBA lists:

• adding to the act industrial use of heat within an entity's own activity,
• lowering the required heat supply efficiency from 75 to 70–60%,
• limiting investment requirements (modernising the cogeneration unit would suffice),
• removing from the act the 31/12/2025 deadline for the building permit (SBA speaks of the date on which it becomes final).

Fuel cost correction

The presentation also features a price correction for fuel costs (Pzn): no indexation until 2023, and from 2023 to 2026 a total of +EUR 59.93/MWh (the sum of the annual values: 8.92 in 2023, 41.24 in 2024, 31.06 in 2025 and −21.29 in 2026).

What next

SBA presents a renewal plan: modernising biogas plants and extending their lifetime to at least 2031. Biomethane is developing in parallel, but in the association's view the state does not yet have a vision of its role.