Biogas producer wins Lower Austria digitalisation award

BioPower, a biogas producer from Krumbach in Wiener Neustadt district, has won the public vote for the 2026 digi4Wirtschaft project with software designed to optimise biogas plant operations using production data, ORF reported.

BioPower is Austria’s largest biogas producer and makes biogas from organic waste, renewable raw materials and organic residues at three sites in Lower Austria. At its site in Retz in Hollabrunn district, up to 50 sensors continuously collect data from the production process.

Specially developed software analyses, among other things, the quantities of raw materials used and the quality of the gas produced. BioPower uses the data to plan the composition of the raw materials more precisely, automate processes and improve plant operations.

The digi4Wirtschaft funding programme supports digitalisation projects by companies through the Lower Austrian government and the Chamber of Commerce of Lower Austria. In an online public vote, BioPower’s project defeated 11 other companies.

“Digitalisation gives us the opportunity to understand and control our processes much more precisely,” BioPower managing director Robert Schweizer said. “The award is a positive confirmation for our team and the path we have taken.”

The projects were presented at the House of Digitalisation in Tulln. Lower Austria Governor Johanna Mikl-Leitner said digitalisation was successful when it created concrete value for a business. Wolfgang Ecker, president of the Lower Austrian Chamber of Commerce, said the projects showed how widely digitalisation had reached the region’s economy.

BioPower won with almost 30 percent of the votes. Timber wholesaler J.u.A. Frischeis from Stockerau came second, while HAAS Garten-, Dach- und Landschaftsbau from Aschbach-Markt in Amstetten district took third place. HAAS offers sustainable greenery solutions for roofs and facades.