Price thresholds for agricultural bioenergy

A study was carried out to determine by how much the price of the nearest related conventional energy source (reference energy source) would have to rise to make domestic production competitive. In the case of logwood and biogas from biowaste, the requisite price rises amounted to a maximum of 45 %. For rape methyl ester, ethanol and biogas produced on the basis of renewable resources from arable farming, the requisite price increases were considerably higher. They varied between 60 and 280 %, depending on energy source and the given assumptions. This is due chiefly to the high production costs of Swiss arable farming.