A new report by the Renewable Energy Association has outlined the potential for Britain to produce the equivalent of more than 45 LNG tankers’ worth of renewable natural gas (in the form of biomethane) per year by 2035. Last year, the UK’s biomethane industry was the fastest growing in the world, and by the end of this year, will produce the equivalent of four LNG tankers worth of gas yearly, which it injects directly into the UK’s natural gas grid. Current levels of biomethane production support the heating and cooking needs of up to 100,000 homes. Biomethane is a renewable gas identical in chemical composition to natural gas, the fossil fuel. There already exists an extensive natural gas transportation and distribution grid in the UK. A total of 50 biomethane projects were completed by the end of 2015, with an additional 15 expected to be completed in 2016.
Scottish Energy News 21st April 2016 read more »
As the REA’s latest report shows, the UK has the potential to rapidly expand its green gas sector – but only if ministers seize the opportunity. Few things infuriate the renewable energy sector more than the differing levels of ministerial enthusiasm reserved for clean energy and the UK’s still largely hypothetical fracking industry. And nowhere are such comparisons more apposite than in discussions of the nascent green gas industry. As Dr Kiara Zennaro, head of UK Biogas, a sector group of the Renewable Energy Association, notes today, “while the government for years has touted the ‘fracking revolution’, biomethane is actually getting on with the job of increasing our domestic gas production while decarbonising supply”. The REA’s new report on the UK’s nascent biogas sector details an industry of enormous potential, which could yet play a major role in delivering on the country’s climate change and energy security strategies.
Business Green 20th April 2016 read more »