The GreenGasGrids project aims at leveraging the market development for biomethane by means of:
- Finding solutions to market barriers
- Bringing together potential business partners
- Promoting biomethane projects in countries with high potential but few activities
- Moving biomethane into the mainstream so it is taken into account in supply/demand and renewable targets
- Hands-on know-how transfer from countries with a high level of experience to countries with emerging biomethane markets.
In countries with running biomethane plants the project focuses on the most pressing issues of trade, technical standards, legislation and sustainability, bringing together key market actors and pushing for solutions to existing market problems.
In countries with projects under preparation and/or high potential comprehensive biomethane strategies are targeted to provide decision-makers – ministries, regulators, related state agencies – with technical and legislative advice enabling them to introduce the most cost-efficient support measures. Market players – gas industry, plant constructors, project developers – from “forerunner” and “starter” countries are being involved in effective business matchmaking to trigger investment, creating a win-win situation for all relevant players. GreenGasGrids is supported by the European Commission under the Intelligent Energy for Europe programme and runs from June 2011 to May 2014.
A biogas upgrading unit in Germany
The consortium of 10 partners from 9 countries ( Germany, Austria, Poland, Italy, UK, The Netherlands, Belgium, Croatia, and Slovakia) covers four focus topics – sustainability, technical standards, trade and legislative issues, all with regard to biomethane:
Sustainability
- Analyse implementation methods and implications for biomethane market development
- Give recommendations for solving open questions of sustainability criteria implementation for biomethane
- Ensure that biomethane is not disadvantaged compared to biogas for electricity under EU Sustainability rules
Technical aspects
- Provide overview by establishing basic data and reviewing existing initiatives (CEN, IEA Task 37)
- Give recommendations for technical standards highlighting min/max requirements
- Support “starter” countries in relation to establishing appropriate standards to avoid un-necessary barriers/delay
Trade
- Analyse the current market and trading situation for biomethane
- Provide recommendations to overcome trade barriers and for implementation of Green Gas Certificates to ensure an efficient and sustainable market
- Develop biomethane business models
Legislation
- Evaluate support measures and relationship between existing incentives for biomethane production and alternative uses for biogas (e.g. CHP)
- Publish country model and indicative national targets for 2020 and 2030 for partner countries based on assessment of country biomass availability and financial incentives
GreenGasGrids provides comprehensive biomethane market data on www.greengasgrids.eu. Publications such as market reports and discussion papers on current biomethane issues can be found in the downloads section.
This post was written by Alexandra Lermen, project coordinator – German Energy Agency
