Nine European Associations representing producers, suppliers, transporters and distributors of gaseous energy coming from natural and renewable sources have issued a joint response to the European Commission's proposed recast of the Renewable Energy Directive (RED II).
Nine European associations, CEDEC, European Biogas Association (EBA), Eurogas, Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE), GEODE, GERG, Hydrogen Europe, Marcogaz and NGVA Europe representing producers, suppliers, transporters and distributors of gaseous energy coming from natural and renewable sources have issued a joint statement outlining a collaborative response to the European Commission’s proposed recast of the Renewable Energy Directive (RED II).
We bring together a broad base of local, regional, national, and international actors promoting and raising awareness about the potential that renewable gas can offer Europeans in terms of clean, efficient, safe and sustainable energy.
The group point out that renewable gas comes in the form of biogas, biomethane, green hydrogen, and synthetic methane (syngas) and are produced from a wide spectrum of sources such as municipal landfills, sewage treatment plants, agricultural residues or manure.
Moreover, renewable gas can store otherwise curtailed electricity by converting ‘surplus green electricity’ into hydrogen or syngas by recycling waste carbon dioxide (CO2) via a power-to-gas (P2G) process. Hydrogen, biomethane and syngas are gaseous energy carriers for use in mobility, heat and industrial applications, acting as enablers for sectoral integration.
Sectoral integration lies in a holistic system approach which strives to link infrastructures and services in the electricity, gas, heating and cooling and transport sectors, where the use and conversion of all energy carriers plays a key role.
Each of these vectors is innovative and carry significant potential in terms of the technical processes underpinning each of them, whether it be anaerobic digestion, gasification, methanation, or P2G.
Three key attributes characterise gas:
- Storable – essential for the energy system and its ability to continue to cope with huge daily and seasonal fluctuations in demand, which is increasingly important as we move toward higher shares of variable electricity production. This makes an invaluable contribution to enabling system balancing and optimisation.
- Infrastructure availability – the infrastructure to transport and distribute gas is available. 2.2 million km of pipelines are already in place to transport gases from various sources, with limited need for adaptation.
- Increasingly renewable. The last few years have seen exponential growth in the amount of renewable gas in the existing network, and the potential even exceeds the total capacity of the electricity system.
The group highlight that a full system perspective to the objectives of energy and environment policy will ensure that the policies are effective. This is increasingly evident as technologies are developing that make new pathways towards system integration possible. An integrated multi-vector (electricity, heat, gas – including all its types) energy system that allows for system reliability and meets demands across every season.
Renewable gas complements its electric counterpart forming two components of an energy system which allows for the degree of renewable energy deployment that our highest collective ambitions pursue. It also is a decentralised source of energy, which allows for active local participation and the consumer benefits of choice and price arbitrage between renewable energy sources.
