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GREEN bioMEthane market UPtake

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - GreenMeUp (GREEN bioMEthane market UPtake)

Berichtszeitraum: 2022-08-01 bis 2024-01-31

Biomethane and biohydrogen are expected to be key contributors towards the decarbonisation of the EU energy system as renewable gases injected to the Natural Gas grid. Biomethane is already mostly transported and distributed through the existing gas infrastructure complying with existing standards; this offers flexibility and efficiency to deal with widely differing gas volumes.
The ultimate objective of GreenMeUp is to facilitate the wider market uptake of biomethane in the European energy and transport sectors by strengthening the market in countries with slower market development policies
This will be achieved by bringing together:
- The European Biogas Association that will bring forward good practices and lessons learnt from countries having the highest market shares covering > 95% of the biomethane produced in Europe (Germany, UK, Denmark, France, The Netherlands, Italy, Sweden, Norway, Switzerland and Austria).
- a set of advanced countries (Germany and Italy) with improved biomethane market uptake and developed policy and institutional frameworks to actively participate in exchanging practical knowledge and experience
- a set of target countries with lower development rates in the respective issues (Greece, Spain, Poland, Latvia, Estonia and Czech Republic) which would benefit from stronger biomethane market and policy measures,
- the Danube Region of Backa and Banat, nowadays part of Hungary, Romania, and Serbia will serve as a case for cross border opportunities in a bottom-up approach.
- a set of Mission Innovation countries (USA, Canada, China, Brazil and India) participating in the International Advisory Board (IAB) to assure an additional flow of information on lessons-learnt, enablers and barriers.
The project is structured over six work packages (WP):
In WP1 framework conditions and market dynamics of the biomethane will be analysed in the top 10 advanced European countries in terms of market development and in selected MI countries.
Similar work will be carried out at national level for 7 selected European target countries (in WP2).
In WP3, stakeholders engagement and societal acceptance will be assured, with the involvement of relevant actors representing all stages of the biomethane value chains (i.e biomethane producers, technology providers, gas distributors, farmers, policy advisers), through science-based evidence and tools
In WP4, market uptake policy measures and respective financial frameworks will be designed, that will allow the biomethane markets to operate efficiently and incentive-compatible in the advanced countries, target countries and outreach countries where results could be replicated.

During the first Reporting Period:
A description of production routes, market dynamics and policy frameworks for biogas and biomethane was produced for the 10 European countries having the highest productions covering > 95% of the biomethane produced in Europe using the extensive databases of EBA. Detailed information is provided for Italy and Germany as reference, while information was collected from the MI countries. Similar country reports were produced for the Target Countries, based on data from the extensive networks of the biogas/biomethane association. In addition, midstream and downstream technological developments for biomethane and bio hydrogen production and offtake developments, as well as feedstocks availabilities and potentials are reported. Finally, existing standards for biomethane and hydrogen are reported that would shed light on the ability of biomethane to be injected in the natural gas grid and allow wider market uptake and cross border trade.

Stakeholder’s engagement and societal acceptance is analysed with the involvement of relevant actors representing all stages of the biomethane value chains. Stakeholders were engaged in the Policy, Market and Society hubs in the Target countries and convened at regular intervals.

To design of final country-tailored market uptake measures the country reports and the input from the hub meetings, world-café workshops and questionnaires is collected and analysed. The implemented analysis led to policy briefings and recommendations, to be considered during the design of policies and measures for the promotion of the biomethane.
The project results are expected to contribute towards the outcomes specified in this project:

1) Facilitate the wider uptake of renewable energy systems in the energy, industrial and residential sectors leading to an increased share of renewable energy in the final energy consumption by 2030 and beyond.
This will be achieved through the comprehensive overviews in the top ten advanced European countries, which revealed enablers to facilitate biomethane market uptake in the target countries as well as through the detailed country reports in each of the Target countries and relative SWOT analyses that will help identifying the market needs in each target country and the ways good examples and lessons learnt from the advanced countries could be accordingly country-tailored.
Reviews of the midstream and downstream technologies and technological developments needed to accommodate large scale introduction of biomethane and feedstock supplies developments were prepared to reveal more efficient feedstocks and conversion technologies.

2) Increase societal acceptance of renewable energy facilities and installations through science-based evidence and tools addressing misperception phenomena from citizens (WP3).
This is supported by:
a) building Policy, Market and Society stakeholder hubs (D3.1) populated with key stakeholders involved in feedstock, technologies, distribution networks in each Target country, following a multi-actor approach (quadruple helix),
b) Co-creation actions, a World-café workshop for the analysis of country socio-economic, spatial and environmental aspects in the deployment of biomethane, following the PESTEL approach and
c) interviews, questionnaires addressing issues affecting socio-political and market perspectives, awareness, perceived benefits & risks, environmental and energy safety concerns, etc.