As a new taskforce to promote the value of green gas is launched, co-Chair and SGN Business Development Director Marcus Hunt, pictured above right, explains its role for net zero and energy security.
As the net zero debate rumbles on, you could be forgiven for overlooking the options available for the decarbonisation of heating.
It’s one of the toughest challenges we face in achieving net zero. It’s the second biggest-emitting sector with around 30 per cent of our national emissions coming from buildings, which includes around 25 million homes connected to gas networks across the UK.
It was exciting, therefore, to join dozens of other energy experts from the UK and Europe last week to discuss the major contribution that biomethane can deliver towards the decarbonisation of the country.
The launch of the Green Gas Taskforce, at SGN’s London office, brought together over 100 industry representatives from the GB biomethane industry, the GB gas networks and key sector groups. It was a significant moment and I’m honoured to be co-Chair, particularly at such a pivotal time for the energy sector.
The taskforce itself is a collaboration between ten of the nation’s largest biomethane generators, shippers and traders, all five gas networks, and four important industry groups.
Our core aim is to promote the important role of green gases in the energy sector’s net zero transition whilst boosting energy security and driving growth.
Biomethane is a net zero green gas. It’s also an existing, proven technology that involves producing biogas by anaerobically digesting organic feedstock (waste, sewage, etc), then upgrading the biogas to biomethane – which can then be injected into GB’s gas network at either transmission or distribution level.
In Great Britain, there are already 130 biomethane plants connected to the gas networks – this is fantastic because biomethane is completely compatible with appliances such as boilers and cookers, and industrial or manufacturing processes that use gas, meaning we can decarbonise energy supply with no disruption or change in experience for customers.
If we can maximise the flows from these existing sites alone, there is already enough connected capacity to decarbonise the gas consumption of the equivalent of 960,000 homes across GB (over 330,000 of which are in SGN’s network area).
Green gas pioneers
Our business has been at the heart of biomethane injection into the UK gas distribution network since the first biomethane-to-grid plant went live in Oxfordshire in 2010.
We’re making brilliant progress and our ambition is to supply one million homes with green gas over the next five years.
This is key, because we’re going to need every tool in the box to decarbonise home heating, so that the millions of people impacted are given a choice in how they heat their homes in the future.
Back to the taskforce – it will produce a series of key reports and analysis, outlining the scope for growth of biomethane in Great Britain and the significant contribution it can deliver to the decarbonisation and energy security of the country.
Ultimately, we want to see GB energy policy shift towards far greater recognition of the role biomethane can play in achieving our clean energy targets.
Therefore, the Taskforce will play an important role in its delivery of impactful studies that will better inform pathways to net zero.
