Energy Sovereignty: How Biomethane is Powering Europe’s Independence
Recent geopolitical events have shown how commercial dependencies can be used as leverage by hostile powers. European energy sovereignty has become one of the most critical strategic issues for the coming years— especially when it comes to gas. In this context, biomethane should no longer be treated as one option among many, but as a key pillar of Europe’s sovereignty, whose development must be accelerated.
At SWEN Capital Partners, we launched our SWIFT strategy, dedicated to renewable energy, six years ago, with the early conviction that the demand for renewable gas would soar and that it would play a decisive role in the global landscape. Today, nearly 80% of the investments of our third vintage are dedicated to renewable molecules, primarily biomethane.
From one dependency to another…
Europe has significantly reduced its reliance on Russian gas, bringing imports down from 45% before the war in Ukraine to 13% in 2025, with a complete ban starting in autumn 2027.
But, at the same time, Europe’s dependence on other countries has grown, particularly the United States, whose market share has risen from 5% in 2021 to 27% in 2025 and could reach 40% by 2030. Shifting from one dependency to another is not a sustainable path to restoring Europe’s energy sovereignty.
Biomethane: the most rapidly deployable solution
One could say “let’s stop oil and gas and switch to other primary energies”. But even with improved efficiency and electrification, the reality is that biofuels such as biomethane will remain essential for industrial processes in sectors such as chemicals, metallurgy or glassmaking, as well as for heavy goods transport, maritime shipping and aviation. A recent study by the International Energy Agency showed that liquid and gaseous fuels will still cover at least 40% of total final energy consumption in 2050.
Developing European biofuel production is therefore crucial and biomethane is the most rapidly deployable solution as it relies on mature technology, available local resources and existing gas infrastructure. Reusing this pre-existing asset in the energy transition avoids the significant costs and time associated with producing new vehicles, heating appliances, energy storage, or networks. Sustainable biomethane enables faster decarbonization of our energy system. The sector already covers about 6% of European gas demand, with a 20% annual growth over the past three years and could reach 60–100% of projected gas needs coverage by 2050.
Biomethane production is renewable, competitive, quickly scalable and socially accepted thanks to its local roots, offering an immediate solution to Europe’s energy sovereignty. Our SWIFT funds have supported several developers across Europe, including CVE Biogas in France, SFP in the Netherlands, AGR in Spain and Vireo in Norway. Together, they already operate more than 50 units and are ready to develop over 100 additional units by 2030.
Beyond energy: Europe’s technological sovereignty and reindustrialization
Unlike renewable electricity, which is heavily dependent on Asian suppliers (for instance, Europe imports 85% of solar panels and our dependence on magnets used in wind turbines is almost total), the entire biomethane value chain relies on European players and technology, from engineering to equipment and operation. The sector creates non-outsourceable jobs in rural areas, directly supporting European reindustrialization and its technological sovereignty.
Beyond energy: agricultural resilience and food sovereignty
Biomethane uses agricultural waste and returns digestate to fields as organic fertilizer. Farmers can 1) generate additional income by selling waste to nearby biomethane plants and 2) reduce costs by replacing fertilizers with locally produced digestate. They can also develop biomethane plants on their own or with developers supported by investors like SWEN Capital Partners.
In addition, fertilizers used by farmers contain nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium that heavily depends on imports. If we focus on nitrogen, Europe today’s digestate production already has the capacity to replace 17% of the nitrogen-based fertilizers currently in use and could reach over 65% by 2040.
The biomethane sector therefore strengthens farmers’ resilience and reduces Europe’s dependence on imported fertilizers, directly contributing to Europe’s food sovereignty.
Making biomethane a pillar of European sovereignty means choosing renewable energy produced in Europe, for Europe, reducing import dependence, strengthening our trade balance, consolidating the energy system and supporting both farming resilience and food sovereignty. At SWEN, we are ready to accelerate !
Guillaume Tuffigo is Director of Asset Management within SWEN Capital Partners and has over twenty years of experience in gas and biomethane markets.