Today's news that Envitec Biogas -  a producer, planner, constructor and commissioner of turnkey biogas plants - has just closed a deal worth EUR 60 million tells us a few things;

i) The continuing effectiveness of generous subsidies in Germany in attracting investment - recently revised to further promote Biogas
ii) Recent rises in natural gas prices across the world, with probably more to come are pricing Biogas into the mainstream
iii) On energy security issues, for the import of gas, Germany has no real choice other than Russia - talks of creating LNG terminals to tap into other suppliers have remained just that - that means the only real option is the exploitation of domestic gas supplies from biosources

The company is way off its highs since a year ago and in the face of this news, you wonder how long that will last.

Meanwhile, the other day I was interviewed on Al-Jazeera TV again and argued that OPEC was increasingly irrelevant and its importance long-overrated to the oil price. It was never as if they all sat down at a table and planned for $140 a barrel. As if they could ever all agree and flawlessly coordinate and trust each other !

The leading player in this game was the emerging market consumer, led by the Chinese middle class. China, I added, still plans to have 100 million more vehicles on its roads by 2020.

Schmack Biogas may not spring to mind - or roll off your tongue too easily - when alternative energy companies arise as a topic of conversation.

Nevertheless, they have bucked the trend since going public in June last year, by rising by more than two times their IPO price. I have only been able to find two listed biogas stocks, both of which appear to operate pretty exclusively on in Germany, Europe (Schmack) and the USA (Environmental Power Corp). That's why the fact that Schmack have taken over their principal German competitor augurs well for the company.

Said Mr Ulrich Schmack;

'The acquisition of Hese Umwelt's Biogas division represented an outstanding opportunity for us in that our Group was able to absorb the main competitor targeting the utilities market. With the new company trading under its own name, Hese Biogas GmbH, we will be able to further expand our market shares.'

Someone once said to me it's the boring businesses that do well in the long run. And if biogas afficianados will forgive me, biogas is not a sexy alternative energy play like solar power or fuel cells. So theoretically, there is less competition and potentially more profits. In other words, clever technology is not always a clever investment. Biogas though as a sector, just might be a good long term bet.

Schmack Biogas AG , gained 1.3 euros, or 3.6 percent, to 37.3 euros. The company's third-quarter pretax profit more than doubled to 2.1 million euros, after 900,000 euros a year ago. Revenue rose to 29.1 million euros from 12 million euros.

Quite apart from these results, what is impressive about Schmack Biogas is their sense of purpose - just look at their website - so upbeat.

There are 2 biological markets for waste fuels;

1) waste cooking oils for biofuels - I suspect this is not quite as good as is made out - see my previous post

2) waste fuels from agriculture - this I see huge potential in as the huge volume of waste remains largely untapped

If Schmack Biogas could break out of the German market and tackle other countries such as the USA it could establish global leadership. There might be a very good case for a takeover of Environmental Power Corp
- it's US equivalent, especially with the dollar so weak against the euro right now. Both companies however appear to be preoccupied with their home markets.