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UK reports promote increasing biomethane production
11/8/2026
News
A new report from the National Energy System Operator (NESO) suggests that the scale of UK biomethane production could be increased by nearly five times its current level without causing significant challenges to agriculture, the environment and the energy system.
The report is very supportive of biomethane produced by anaerobic digestion (AD), a process usually based on agricultural land where organic matter such as cow manure or crop waste rots in absence of oxygen, producing methane-rich biogas and waste that can be used as fertiliser.
It follows another supportive report, Scotland’s green gas opportunity, published in June. This report finds that Scotland has sufficient sustainable feedstocks to generate 19TWh of biomethane by 2050, equivalent to around 50% of Scotland’s current gas demand.
SGN, which supported the report, said that 25 plants are currently connected to its grid, but added that there was scope to grow that as only 2.5% of Scotland’s organic farm waste is currently producing biomethane.
It said that biomethane could decarbonise industry and transport where electrification is difficult, or sectors where decarbonisation technology is not yet ready. It said it could also be a relatively low-cost means of carbon capture.
On the other hand, it also noted that growth in biomethane production requires government support and help with infrastructure, such as gas network connection points.
Some 6TWh of biomethane is currently injected into the gas grid in the UK. A Houses of Parliament report, Upscaling anaerobic digestion, estimates that there are 750 municipal, commercial and smaller agricultural AD plants in the UK, producing 21TWh of biomethane per year.
The report goes on to outline the potential problems with this issue. One big one is that edible crops are being diverted from the human and livestock food supply chain for biogas.
Biogas is more expensive to produce than natural gas, but in theory is lower carbon as it uses waste material or removes the gas that would normally be emitted by a natural decomposition process.
