Opening the portal to Europe’s biomethane trade
“A reliable EU Guarantees of Origin system will contribute to the boost of the biomethane market.”
A sustainable energy source that can be transported across the existing natural gas transport system, biomethane can make Europe’s energy grid greener and more independent. Doing this will require increased use of the European common biomethane market, which will also enable investments and promote cross-border trade. The EU-funded REGATRACE project created an efficient trade system based on the issuing and trading of biomethane gas certificates. These provide Guarantees of Origin (GoO) and Proof of Sustainability (PoS) for biomethane and other renewable gases. “This strongly contributed to the uptake of the European common biomethane market,” says Stefano Proietti, senior researcher at ISINNOVA in Italy, and REGATRACE project coordinator. “A significant help was also provided by the comprehensive set of the project’s actions at country level,” he adds. REGATRACE paved the way for national GoO issuing bodies for biomethane. Some of the existing biomethane registries were also connected to the platform for the European Renewable Gas Registry (ERGaR) Certificates of Origin (CoO) Scheme. The AIB Hub will also facilitate standardised cross-registry transfer of gas GoOs. “A reliable EU Guarantees of Origin system will contribute to the boost of the biomethane market, thanks to traceability, transparency and certification of biomethane production,” Proietti says. In the first three quarters of 2022, transfers between Austria, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom resulted in a total transfer volume of approximately 4 300 GWh. Cross-border transfers of biomethane certificates between other European countries are still relatively low, Proietti notes. Yet based on these data and observations, the volume of cross-border transfers of biomethane certificates will total approximately 6 000 GWh in 2022 – double that of 2020. The work contributes essentially to the hydrogen and decarbonised gas markets package for the creation of a European-wide market for renewable and low-carbon gases. Future work in this area will pave the way for national strategies and energy and climate plans integrating sustainable biogas and biomethane production. “The guidance will also assist project developers in planning and realising biomethane investment projects,” notes Proietti. “All of this will strongly contribute to the REPowerEU Plan,” he adds.
Keywords
biomethane, biogas, natural gas, sustainability, renewable fuels, green energy transition, REPowerEU, Research and Innovation, renewable technologies, biomethane technologies, solar energy