EnviTec offers support for SURE certification according to RED II requirements

As one of the first companies in Germany, the EnviTec Biogas Group offers biogas plant operators a professional certification package to verify the sustainability of biomass through the Sustainable Resources Verification Scheme – SURE for short. “In future, the verification scheme will be one of the most important instruments for biogas plants in the field of electricity and heat generation to document compliance with the requirements of the Renewable Energy Directive, RED II,” explains EnviTec Service Sales Manager Jan Meistermann.

The European regulation sets out various criteria that every plant operator from the bioenergy sector must meet to ensure the sustainability of the biomass used and produced, a correct mass balance, the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and energy efficiency.

The package offered optimally supports biogas plant operators in the administrative procedure surrounding SURE certification. “From now on, plants that generate electricity and heat or cooling from biogas are also subject to the verification requirement, provided their installed rated thermal input exceeds 2 MW,” Meistermann explains. The verification has already applied to the entire supply chain of the biogas plant since 1 July this year.

“Thanks to our cooperation with the renowned environmental verifier Uppenkamp und Partner, which is currently undergoing accreditation as a SURE certifier, among other things, we can now provide our customers with advice and support and accompany the process from the beginning to the certification audit on site,” Meistermann explains. It is important to identify potential weak points as early as possible in order to be able to comply with the legal obligation to provide evidence in due time. “Therefore, it is advisable to initiate all the paperwork promptly,” says Meistermann. This includes, for example, obtaining self-declarations from suppliers or regularly maintaining mass balance sheets.

Documentation of sustainability through certification is particularly interesting in economically attractive areas such as the fuel or electricity and heat market, where there is currently an increasing demand for certified biomethane.

SURE is a sister system to REDcert (https://www.redcert.org); however, unlike REDcert, the SURE system does not cover the production of final fuels (biomethane from gas processing). Unlike REDcert, however, SURE offers system specifications for the production of forestry biomass as well as electricity and heating/cooling from solid and gaseous biomass. Therefore, biogas plants with a rated thermal input of 2 MW or more also fall under this system.

For biogas plants that produce both biomethane for the fuel market and biogas for the generation of electricity and heat, dual certification according to REDcert and SURE may be necessary under certain circumstances. However, this only applies if the plant has a CHP that produces electricity and heat. In this case, the biomethane from the biogas upgrading plant would have to be certified according to REDcert for use in fuel production, but the CHP would have to be certified according to SURE.

For more information, please visit: https://www.envitec-biogas.com/