MARIANGELA SALERNO1; FRANCESCO GALLUCCI1; LUIGI PARI1; ILARIA ZAMBON2; DANIELE SARRI3; ANDREA COLANTONI2
1 Council for Agricultural Research and Agricultural Economics Analysis, Agricultural Engineering Research Unit(CREA-ING), 00015 Monterotondo Scalo (RM), Italy
2 Tuscia University, Department of Agriculture and Forestry Science (DAFNE), 01100 Viterbo, Italy
3 Florence University, GESAAF Department, 50144 Firenze, Italy
Salerno, M., F. Gallucci, L. Pari, I. Zambon, D. Sarri and A. Colantoni, 2017. Costs-benefi ts analysis of a smallscale biogas plant and electric energy production. Bulg. J. Agric. Sci., 23 (3): 357–362
The present work concerns the economic and fi nancial evaluation of a small biogas plant (power plant of 250 kWel), with reference to the case of a biogas plant fed with a bio-matrix classifi able as both a by-product and a product. The study was focused on the comparison of several incentive systems that have followed over time. According to the analysis carried out using some economic indicators, results revealed that the investment profi tability was descending passing from the old all-inclusive rate to the current incentive scheme. Furthermore, it is possible to emphasize that the use of products, rather than by-products, penalizes investment by reducing the incentive rate, thus putting the investment in a high fi nancial risk. Thanks to the present study, it can be assumed that the small biogas production plants enable positive benefi ts in social, economic and environmental terms.