Determinants of Return-on-Equity (ROE) of Biogas Plants Operating in Poland

Abstract

Poland has a large potential for biogas production from agricultural sources and food waste. This potential is still poorly used. There are many reasons for this state of affairs. We can indicate both the policy of the state towards renewable energy sources (RES) with a small amount of energy from biogas contracted at auctions, investment risk, and especially low return on investment in the absence of investment support. An important reason is also the limited state budget. The purpose of this work was to determine the endogenous factors that determine ROE, the direction of the impact of these factors, as well as the strategy of biogas plants in shaping the ROE level. The DuPont model was used in the analysis of ROE changes. We used the deviation method to determine the impact of the various factors on ROE. Against the background of the energy sector in Poland, the value of ROE in the examined biogas plants should be considered satisfactory, and in 2020 it was, on average, 13.9%. The decrease from 17.2% in 2019 occurred despite the increase in energy prices and the increase in the net profit margin (NPM). It resulted from the reduction of ROE’s financial leverage through external capital. A high level of debt characterized the examined biogas plants, and the pursuit of risk reduction and debt reduction negatively impacts on ROE. This may indicate the need for state investment support at the plant construction stage or low-interest investment loans to develop biogas plants. In addition, using only price guarantees under the feed-in tariffs, with dynamic changes in costs, may bring the industry a relatively high investment risk compared to other RES, where the operational costs during the lifetime are low, as it is in PV or wind systems.