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Green gas demand grows; hydrogen trial begins
UK suppliers have now sold enough gas sourced from renewable sources through the Green Gas Certification Scheme (GGCS) to cover the annual consumption of 83,000 homes, according to operators of the scheme, which say that sales of its certificates have now hit 1 TWh.
Increasing numbers of consumers are becoming aware that, just as they can buy renewable electricity certificates, the rapid growth in the number of plants injecting biomethane into the gas grid is opening opportunities to include green gas as part of their energy mix. Nearly all the leading business energy suppliers are now using the GGCS to offer green gas to their customers, with Corona Energy making the largest volume of sales to date.
Businesses such as Sainsbury’s, Kingspan and Unilever are now using Green Gas Certificates to drive down their reported on-site greenhouse gas emissions, says GGCS. And, in the water sector, Wessex Water and Severn Trent are showing the role renewable gas can play in the circular economy, powering their operations with biomethane produced from the sewage sludge they process on-site. An estimated 200,000 households have signed up to green gas tariffs across eight different energy suppliers.
The green gas market has significant scope to develop in the UK, says GGCS, with a recent study suggesting the potential for renewable gas production is to reach 150 TWh by 2050, enough to power over 10mn homes.
Jesse Scharf, Scheme Manager at the GGCS said: ‘We have had significant growth in both sales and interest in green gas in 2017, with a fourfold increase in demand year on year. With over 40 biomethane plants now part of the scheme, representing over half the UK’s production capacity, the GGCS is well placed to meet this growing demand.’
Meanwhile, Arup is leading a project examining the feasibility of phasing out the use of natural gas for domestic use by converting homes to hydrogen fuel. The £25mn Hydrogen for Heat Programme, commissioned by the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, will look at the feasibility of converting a small village or estate to replace natural gas with hydrogen for cooking and heating.
The Arup-led consortium, including hydrogen specialists Kiwa Gastec, will explore the practicalities of using the zero-carbon gas in homes and will facilitate the design and manufacture of new appliances such as fires, cookers and boilers, for both domestic and commercial use. The project, expected to run until March 2021, will explore public attitudes to changing to hydrogen. If successful, the project will have laid all the ground work for the demonstration of a pilot project in a village or small town.
