Maatalouden biokaasulaitoksen ympäristöluvat ja alueen kaavan mukainen käyttö

Biogas operations have an excellent potential for increasing the environmental and economic sustainability of agriculture. However, there is currently legal uncertainty on whether and to what extent the current land-use and environmental regulatory frameworks support or prevent such biogas operations. This study was conducted using the legal dogmatics method. The main findings are that the most critical question is whether a biogas operation is conjoined with an agricultural operation or otherwise naturally belongs to the geographic area designated for agriculture. If biogas operations are seen as removed from agricultural operations, the land use and environmental regulation effectively prevents initiating such operations. The main factors that affect how biogas operations are viewed from a legal perspective are their size and the type of farming that an agricultural unit conducts.