KTG Agrar AG to start 2011 with biogas production capacity at 15.7 megawatts
- New 635 kW biogas plant taken over
- 500 kW plant under construction
- Biogas production capacity to amount to 15.7 MW at the start of 2011
Hamburg, 16 November 2010 – KTG Agrar AG (ISIN: DE000A0DN1J4) continues to push ahead the expansion of its biogas production capacity. The company expects its total grid-connected capacity to amount to 15.7 megawatts by the end of this year, which will be sufficient to cover the energy needs of some 27,000 households. More than 30,000 hectares of farmland make the company a leading agricultural producer in Europe. Besides growing organic and conventional produce such as wheat, maize and rapeseed, the production of environmentally friendly biogas is the third pillar of the company’s business. “The biogas segment is currently our growth driver,” says Dr. Thomas Berger, the KTG Board member in charge of the biogas segment. “In 2012 we will achieve a capacity of 25 megawatts and generate revenues of some EUR 40 million from this business.”
In Brandenburg the agricultural producer recently took over a turn-key biogas plant from a project developer. The plant rated for a capacity of 635 kilowatts (kW) is located not far from one of the company’s farms in Altdöbern. KTG Agrar’s own construction activities are being pushed ahead at the same time. The company has obtained a construction permit for another biogas plant to be installed in Wuthenow, Brandenburg, where earth moving work has already started; the 500 kW plant is to be connected to the grid before year-end. The same is true in Seelow, where the construction of a 3.2 MW plant is making rapid progress; this will be the company’s first biomethane plant, which means that biogas is refined to natural gas quality and fed into the regional gas grid. Apart from these three locations, numerous other projects are at advanced stages of the respective approval processes.
KTG Agrar relies on an integrated concept of biogas production and farming. Locations in the direct vicinity of the company’s farms allow its biogas plants to be supplied fast and efficiently with input materials. Apart from maize silage, input materials include agricultural residues such as grass and straw. In addition, KTG Agrar increasingly uses intercrops, meaning that once the grain has been harvested in summer, millet or clover grass is sown on the same fields and harvested in November. In a few years’ time already, the company intends to use almost exclusively grass and intercrops as input materials for the production of biogas. Says Dr. Thomas Berger: “Our concept results in high-quality produce and clean energy all coming from the same fields."
About KTG Agrar:
With cultivable land of more than 30,000 hectares, KTG Agrar AG is one of the leading producers of agricultural commodities in Europe. The Hamburg-based company’s core area of expertise is the organic and traditional cultivation of market products such as cereals, maize and rapeseed. For organic market products KTG Agrar is the European market leader. The company mainly produces in Germany but has also operated production in the EU full member state of Lithuania since 2005. The third mainstay is the production of bio-energy. At present, KTG Agrar operates biogas plants with a total capacity of around eleven megawatts. In the year 2009, KTG achieved a total output of EUR 59,7 million and EBIT of EUR 9.2 million. Since November 2007 the company is listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and currently more than 200 employees. Further information can be found at www.ktg.ag.