Biogas in Germany

The development of biogas in Germany has many similarities and possible debate as ethanol in the USA. Germans use mainly grains and energy crops to produce biogas. The number of the plants was 850 in 1999 and is nowadays around 5000 units. The major application of biogas in this country is burning the gas into electricity. I should congradulate our neibouring country for this success. However, an important point here is the efficiency of heat to electricity, that is about 30-50% by e.g. engines, turbines or fuel cells. It means Germans are missing 50-70% of the energy produced. We use this energy in Sweden in form of district heat.