BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 25. Overall, increasing biomethane production 10-fold (from around 3 bcm to 35 bcm between now and 2030) in Europe will be challenging, but with the right incentive structure, there is some chance that it could be achieved, Trend reports with reference to Oxford Institute of Energy Studies (OIES).
A further feature of the current biomethane market, probably undesirable in current circumstances, is that incentive schemes often promote the use of biomethane in the transport sector. For example, in Sweden, 83 per cent of biomethane production is used in transport, while the figure is 100 per cent in Italy. By contrast, in Germany only around 9 per cent of biomethane production is used in transport (aggregate data for total use of biomethane in transport in Europe does not appear to be available). The use of biomethane in transport tends to be high value and hence popular, because of historic incentives (in line with Article 25 of the Renewable Energy Directive or the UK’s Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation) whereby biomethane is eligible as a renewable transport fuel under the fuel supply obligation. Since natural gas is not widely used as a transport fuel, such biomethane use tends to be incremental to, rather than a substitute for, natural gas use,” reads a report released by OIES.
The report reveals that since the driver for the intended rapid increase in biomethane production by 2030 is to reduce reliance on imported Russian natural gas, it would seem preferable to reduce incentives for the use of biomethane in transport and promote the use of biomethane more widely as a substitute for natural gas in the grid.
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