What Flexible Biogas Power Is Really Worth
For decades most biogas plants produced baseload power: steadily, day and night, at a fixed feed-in tariff. On Germany's power exchange, that model pays less and less. Solar pushes prices down during the day, often below zero, while in the evenings and on dark, windless days gas-fired plants set the price. Plants that produce at those times earn more.
How much more? Monthly market data from the Bavarian State Research Center for Agriculture (LfL) provide the answer. Martin Strobl, an analyst at the institute, also explained at an industry web seminar what it takes for a plant to actually capture the extra revenue.
How the LfL calculates
The LfL works from quarter-hourly generation, consumption and wholesale price data published by the Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur). For each operating mode, it calculates the average price a plant would have achieved by producing only in certain hours of the day (LfL, 2026a). The benchmark is the official monthly market value for electricity from biomass, published by Germany's transmission system operators. That is the baseload price: the average of every quarter-hour in the month.
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