Poland’s farm biogas grants: up to 65% support, but no funding route for commercial biomethane
Poland’s latest agricultural biogas grant round can materially reduce the capital cost of producing energy on farms.[1]
Poland’s agricultural payments agency, ARiMR, runs the call. It is an application round under an established programme, rather than a newly enacted support mechanism.[2]
Intervention I.10.2 supports renewable energy and energy efficiency in agricultural holdings. Its three areas separate agricultural biogas installations, solar-energy investments and improvements to farm-building energy performance. The biogas allocation should therefore not be confused with the intervention’s broader renewable-energy offering.[2]
The current round follows two earlier windows and two revisions of the intervention’s detailed guidelines.[3]
The first round provides an important caution against equating attractive grant terms with deployment. An evaluation of the 2024 round recorded only nine Area A applications: seven were rejected and two withdrawn, with none accepted for implementation. These are historical first-round results, not a description of the current pipeline.[4]
Agricultural activity is the starting point. Four conditions define the applicant.
New construction, not an existing-plant retrofit programme
Area A supports construction of agricultural biogas installations associated with the farm’s agricultural activity. Planned eligible expenditure must exceed PLN 20,000.[5]
The 65% rate is constrained by a beneficiary ceiling
Support reimburses up to 65% of eligible expenditure, subject to a PLN 1.5 million maximum per beneficiary over the programme implementation period.[1] The distinction between the reimbursement percentage and the monetary ceiling becomes material as project costs rise. Above PLN 2.31 million of eligible cost (1.5 ÷ 0.65), every additional złoty is funded by the beneficiary.
Calculations assume full eligibility of the stated expenditure, the maximum reimbursement rate and no previously used beneficiary allowance.
Farmers must also account for the intervention’s combined ceilings. These do not increase the maximum biogas grant itself.
The call’s budget signals a targeted deployment opportunity
The published 2026 Area A regulation allocates PLN 44.87 million to the round. At the maximum individual grant size, that represents funding on the scale of roughly 30 projects; smaller awards would allow more beneficiaries.[5]
Three capacity tests apply to every project.
Below 50 kW of total farm renewable capacity the 20% test is the tighter limit; above it, the 10 kW cap applies.
The biogas information card
Demand is evidenced through a mandatory biogas information card.[6]
Applications must obtain at least six points. The scoring system gives substantial weight to livestock production and use of manure originating on the applicant’s own farm.[8]
Each tier replaces the one before it. A holding above 200 DJP reaches the six-point minimum on livestock alone; every other route requires combining criteria.
Livestock numbers are assessed over the relevant preceding 12-month period using DJP livestock-equivalent units, not a simple headcount.[8]
The policy preference is clear: this is not a feedstock-neutral competition. It rewards projects closely integrated with livestock farming and the holding’s own manure supply.
The standard grant agreement permits implementation in 24 months for a one-stage project or 36 months for a two-stage project, measured from contract signature. However, it also imposes an absolute deadline of 30 June 2029. The agreement also requires the supported activity and funded infrastructure to be maintained for five years after final payment.[9]
Clock started at the call’s 3 November 2026 close, the earliest a contract could follow. A two-stage project then has about 32 months, not 36, before the absolute deadline; any later signature shortens the window further.
For project sponsors, the immediate challenge is therefore broader than submitting an application: the site, technical design, financing and delivery timetable must form a credible route to an operating installation.
A separate NFOŚiGW programme, Improving energy security through the use of biomethane, launched a PLN 300 million call in 2026. It offers grants to entrepreneurs for new digestion installations with biomethane upgrading and gas-grid connection, on a published application window separate from the current ARiMR round.[10]