Subdued by wind and solar? A comprehensive analysis of barriers to biogas technology uptake

Abstract

A decade ago, biogas had become a promising clean energy resource for the global transition to sustainability. Biogas technology can convert organic materials, including municipal, industrial, and agricultural wastes, as well as purpose-grown crops, into methane as an energy carrier. The digestate can be used as fertiliser to provide plant nutrients and restore soil fertility. Despite its potential, the global deployment rate of biogas has slowed since. A systematic literature review is presented to identify, evaluate, compare, and synthesise articles published since 2015 on barriers to the uptake of biogas technology from a global perspective. The analysis distinguishes between small, medium and large-scale biogas installations and between low, lower-middle, upper-middle and high-income countries. Barriers are classified as institutional, technological, economic, market, information, environmental, socio-cultural, and technical, referred to as the ITEMIEST framework. Information and socio-cultural barriers are mentioned more often in small and medium-scale biogas, whilst institutional, technological, economic, market and technical barriers dominate for large-scale projects. Whilst the review classifies and analyses the multiple barriers reported, it is noted that to date, there is no study analysing the effect of sharply decreasing prices of wind and solar PV technologies and their associated exponential deployment as an important driver of the slowdown of new biogas projects.