The Gas for Climate industry consortium has called on the European Commission to introduce a legally-binding target for the production of gas from renewable sources, saying incentives are necessary to grow Europe\u2019s fledgling market.<\/p>\n
Production of low-carbon gases such as biomethane and hydrogen needs to be scaled up quickly if Europe is serious about cutting emissions to net-zero by 2050, according to a new study published Wednesday (22 April).<\/p>\n
The study, by consulting firm Guidehouse, describes potential gas decarbonisation pathways until 2050.<\/p>\n
The centrepiece is a call to stimulate the production of biomethane and hydrogen by introducing a binding mandate for 10% of all gas in Europe to come from renewable sources by 2030.<\/p>\n
\u201cLarge scale production of biomethane and green and blue hydrogen \u2013 transported, stored and distributed through existing gas infrastructure\u201d can play an important role in reducing emissions by 2030, the consortium said in a statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cCoupling the electricity, gas and heat sectors \u2013 by linking their markets and their respective infrastructure in a better-coordinated and integrated way \u2013 provides the greatest overall benefits for the European energy system,\u201d the study said.<\/p>\n
Other recommendations in the study include:<\/p>\n
Adapting EU regulations to make gas infrastructure future-proof in an integrated energy system combining gas and electricity.
\nFostering cross-border trade and transport of hydrogen and biomethane, with clearer market rules and a well-functioning Guarantee of Origin system.
\nBoosting demand for hydrogen and biomethane by broadening the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) combined with targeted and time-bound Contracts for Difference.
\nThe European Commission reckons that low-carbon electricity coming from renewables and nuclear will form the \u201cbackbone\u201d of Europe\u2019s energy system by 2050, meeting 53% of total energy demand.<\/p>\n
But that won\u2019t be enough to cut emissions to net-zero, the EU\u2019s stated objective for 2050. And low-carbon gases such as biomethane and hydrogen are expected to fill a substantial part of the gap.<\/p>\n
\u201cHydrogen will play a huge role,\u201d the EU\u2019s climate chief Frans Timmermans said last year, just\u00a0 days before unveiling the European Commission\u2019s flagship Green Deal initiative.<\/p>\n
Commission leans towards end-use targets<\/p>\n
When it comes to supply targets, however, EU policymakers have different views.<\/p>\n
The European Commission has already signalled its preference for end-use targets in specific sectors like chemicals, steel or transport rather than targets based on production.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we do see targets, I see them on the demand side,\u201d said Klaus-Dieter Borchardt, deputy director-general at the Commission\u2019s energy department.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do not see EU production targets,\u201d he told a recent webinar hosted by the Florence School of Regulation.<\/p>\n
This is because hydrogen is likely to develop differently across Europe, creating different national demands and needs, Borchardt said, according to S&P Global Platts.<\/p>\n
Officials have warned about the potential harmful environmental side effects of green gases, citing the EU\u2019s failed biofuels policy as an example.<\/p>\n
The EU was forced to backtrack from an earlier 10% biofuels target in transport after evidence emerged that growing demand in Europe was causing deforestation in places like Indonesia.<\/p>\n
Environmentalists are now worried the same could happen with biogas and biomethane.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s save those precious renewable and bio-gases for applications like heavy industry, long-distance transport, aviation and shipping where electrification is not possible in the short-term,\u201d said Jutta Paulus, a German politician sitting with the Greens in the European Parliament.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Green hydrogen conundrum<\/p>\n
Still, defenders of supply targets argue a similar approach could be adopted with biomethane and so-called green hydrogen produced from renewable electricity.<\/p>\n
Daan Peters is energy director at Guidehouse, the consulting firm that produced the study. According to him, a target for renewable gas production could be introduced as \u201ca sub-target\u201d under the EU\u2019s renewable energy directive, which mandates a 32% share for renewables by 2030.<\/p>\n
Crucially, it \u201cwould not compete with existing renewable electricity scale-up plans\u201d because the current 32% target in the directive will be increased to meet the bloc\u2019s higher climate ambition for 2030, he argued.<\/p>\n
In the early stages up to 2030, \u201cmost of the target would be met by biomethane,\u201d with green hydrogen gradually scaling up afterwards until it dominates the market, Peters said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe expect that green hydrogen will ultimately be cheaper and the dominant form of hydrogen,\u201d Peters told EURACTIV in emailed comments, saying \u201ctwo-thirds of EU hydrogen consumption would be green hydrogen\u201d by 2050.<\/p>\n
\u201cYet a full-scale acceleration of green hydrogen already during the 2020s would be suboptimal,\u201d he warned, because additional renewable power will be needed to satisfy growing demand for electricity.<\/p>\n
\u201cA too early large scale-up of green hydrogen by diverting too much renewable power from direct electricity too soon may even lead to a net increase in emissions,\u201d added Peters.<\/p>\n
In the meantime, the EU market would be supplied with \u201cgrey\u201d hydrogen coming from natural gas, part of which could be made carbon-free using CO2 capture and storage technology \u2013 so-called \u201cblue\u201d hydrogen.<\/p>\n
\u201cBlue hydrogen is much cheaper than green hydrogen today but we expect that by 2040 green hydrogen becomes cheaper,\u201d Peters said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Gas for Climate industry consortium has called on the European Commission to introduce a legally-binding target for the production of gas from renewable sources, saying incentives are necessary to grow Europe\u2019s fledgling market. Production of low-carbon gases such as biomethane and hydrogen needs to be scaled up quickly if Europe is serious about cutting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","nova_meta_subtitle":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572,5571],"tags":[14263,12330,14374],"supplier":[2317],"class_list":["post-74247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bio-based","category-co2-based","tag-biomethane","tag-ccu","tag-emission","supplier-european-commission"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74247"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74247\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74247"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=74247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}