50% des britischen Gasbedarfs könnten durch Biogas gedeckt werden

Studie zeigt Potenziale für Großbritannien

In einem im Januar veröffentlichen Paper beschreibt der britische Gasversorger National Grid das Potential für aufbereitetes Biogas auf dem britischen Gasmarkt. Laut dem Paper kann, mit der richtigen Politik, die Biogaseinspeisung eine wichtige Rolle zum Erreichen der nationalen Ziele bzgl. des CO2– Austoßes bis 2020 spielen. Längerfristig sei es möglich, die Hälfte des britischen Gasverbrauchs mit dem Erdgassubsitut aus Biomasse abzudecken.

Exekutive Summary
Renewable gas has the potential to make a significant contribution to the UK’s renewable energy and carbon reduction targets for 2020. And in the longer term, with the right government policies in place, renewable gas could meet up to 50% of UK residential gas demand. Produced mainly via a process of anaerobic digestion (AD) or thermal gasification of the UK’s biodegradeable waste, renewable gas represents a readily implementable solution for delivering renewable heat to homes in the UK. Renewable gas can also deliver greater security of energy supply for the country as well as a solution for waste management as UK landfill capacity declines.

In terms of the cost to the UK of delivering renewable gas, it is estimated that the marginal cost (i.e. that over and above the cost of the waste infrastructure which must be built anyway in the UK to deal with reducing landfill capacity) would be in the region of £10bn. This cost compares well with the likely cost of delivering other large scale renewables such as wind. The unit cost of renewable gas would be of a similar level to the cost of other sources of renewable energy which are currently supported with subsidies.

There are no insurmountable technical or safety barriers to delivering this solution (the technology is already being deployed in many other countries). The key to delivery is Government policy and regulation. The following policy developments are urgently required:

  • A commercial incentive for renewable gas producers to upgrade and grid-inject their gas rather than generate electricity which is currently incentivised under the RO scheme despite being a generally much less efficient use of the valuable waste stream;
  • A comprehensive waste management policy for the UK to ensure that each waste stream is directed to the most appropriate technology to maximise energy recovery and recycling
  • A regulatory framework to provide incentives and to clarify the roles and responsibilities of the gas transporters with respect to renewable gas connections;
  • Continued support for R&D in renewable gas production and upgrade technologies.

Renewable gas represents a great opportunity to deliver ‘green heat’ to the UK. It is a unique, large scale solution which unlike other options such as district heating and heat pumps utilises existing heat infrastructure (i.e. gas grids) already largely paid for by the consumer. So renewable gas does not require consumers to find the money for new heating installations in the home and also avoids the disruptive road works that would be required to build more network infrastructure.

Weitere Informationen:

Source

biogaspartner.de, 2009-02-13.

Supplier

National Grid

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