Potential of local biomass and feeding locations of green gas: An exploration for 2030

This report by CE Delft explores the potential of local biomass and feeding locations of green gas in the Netherlands towards 2030. It analyses four different scenarios with different degrees of support policies and of upscaling and technology availability. This study aims to identify whether the Climate Agreement’s ambition to realise 2 billion cubic meters (bcm) of green gas in the Netherlands in 2030 is achievable.

After analysing the technical and economical potentials, it estimates that the green gas production potential could be between 0.36 and 2 bcm, depending on the scenario.

The report found that achieving the Climate Agreement’s ambition is only possible using local biomass residues in a scenario with strong support policies for green gas and the realization of innovative gasification techniques. Strong supporting policies include the SDE subsidy, a blending obligation or CO2 storage on natural gas, together with “specific supporting policy of manure fermentation and gasification”. The report also recommends “specific support for the conversion of biogas CHP to green gas installations as a tool that can make a substantial contribution to achieving the ambition”. However, the report also notes that more green gas could be produced by using imported biomass or plastics, but this is outside the scope of the study.

“The current green gas production capacity in the Netherlands is approximately 0.18 bcm. So there is still a lot of capacity to be built to produce 2 bcm of green gas and to achieve the national ambition for 2030”. The report finds that “due to the large potential contribution of manure fermentation and gasification and of the upgrading of biogas currently used in cogeneration (CHP) plants, the support of manure digesters, manure gasifiers and upgrading plants is of particular importance”.

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