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Biogas production is a process with great potential. It uses the biodegradable raw materials of animal, vegetable and municipal waste. The amount of municipal as well as agricultural waste is increasing every year. This waste is an unmanaged and nuisance waste, and using it in biogas plants reduces the amount of waste. Biogas production is part of the EU’s policy to reduce dependence on fossil fuels and use energy from renewable sources (diversification of energy sources). Its importance is certain to increase in the future as energy demand increases. This article deals with the economical use of biodegradable waste for biogas production in Poland and Germany. Both countries have a similar agricultural and municipal waste structure. An agricultural biogas plant is one way of obtaining energy based on renewable energy sources (RES). Energy production from agricultural biogas will allow Poland to meet the 32% obligation imposed by the EU and Germany to continue to be the market leader in biogas plants. The biogas market in Poland is growing, while in Germany, there is a decline in biogas installations. The article indicates what changes need to take place in agriculture and the use of municipal waste in these countries to sustain the development of biogas plants. Both countries should maintain animal husbandry to ensure continuous access to substrate and use waste for production rather than growing maize or other mixtures only for biogas plants. Due to the high price of chemical fertilisers, pulp from biogas plants should be an alternative to chemical fertilisers in both countries, which will contribute to greener crops. The governments of both countries should support such measures.

The problem of rising energy prices stems from the weakening of economies operating in the realities of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, as well as from the rising cost of CO2 emission allowances in connection with the European Union’s environmental policy. The outbreak of war in Ukraine has deepened the energy crisis in European countries, which, to a significant extent, benefit from hydrocarbon resources imported from Russia. This problem is particularly acute in countries that are heavily dependent on conventional forms of energy production (e.g., Poland). In light of the problems observed, the need to develop a market for renewable energy has become more urgent than ever. Although this problem affects a number of countries, the authors of the study decided that it is particularly important in the region of the countries neighbouring the line of the ongoing armed conflict in Ukraine, i.e., Poland and the Baltic States (Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia). The choice of the research area was determined by direct proximity to the examined countries, as well as the generally comparable social and economic conditions of Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, which creates the basis for factual comparisons and conclusions. The main objective of the study was to assess the directions of the development of the geothermal energy market in Poland against the background of the Baltic States in the current economic conditions, together with an attempt to determine the most justified direction of geothermal energy development in Poland—with the strongest impact on increasing the share of RES in the energy system and limiting the increase in electricity prices in this country. Identification of solutions practiced in the geothermal energy market in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia for comparative purposes (Poland region) was helpful in this respect. The subject of this study was oriented towards the diagnosis of the state of the geothermal energy market in the surveyed countries to determine the general directions of its development. Particular attention was paid to the study of needs and preferences in this field on the Polish market concerning individual users, which constitutes the basis of the research. The instruments required for carrying out the research work in the outlined scope were basically drawn from the area of economic analysis and evaluation of phenomena (multifaceted analysis including critical analysis of the literature, comparative analysis of research results, situational analysis of geothermal market), in comparison with the results of our own research (questionnaire survey) carried out on the Polish energy market (individual customers). The research revealed the strong position of Poland in the field of the development of deep and shallow geothermal energy in the area of the countries accepted for the study. The determinant of the above is the abundance in this country of easily accessible heat deposits of the Earth. In general, the actions taken by the surveyed countries in the field of geothermal development are of a similar nature (shallow geothermal heat pumps are the most developed), while, in the field of deep geothermal energy, an interesting observation is the orientation towards solutions based on the energy of crystalline rocks in Lithuania and Estonia, determined by the availability of such deposits in this region. Surveys indicate the growing awareness of the validity of efforts to extract energy from the earth. However, this problem still represents a major challenge (e.g., deep geothermal energy in Estonia), so indicating the role of geothermal energy in the energy market—especially in the area of the countries accepted for the survey—is an important and relevant topic.