Biogas production certificates, calls for projects for pyrogasification, administrative simplifications: renewable gas players want the Government not to forget its promises in 2024.
This Tuesday, April 23, during an inventory of renewable gases in France (1), some of the main representatives of the sector spoke about their expectations. For the Renewable Energies Union (SER), the distribution network managers (GRDF) and transport networks (Teréga for the south-west of France and GRTgaz for the rest of the territory) and the Union of local gas companies (Gaz territories, ex-SPEGNN), multiplying biomethane production fivefold by 2030 (to cover 20% of gas consumption) will not be done without new regulatory and financial releases.
Pending promises
First of all, the four organizations plead to maintain the support committed to biomethane. On the one hand, they request the publication “urgent” of the second decree governing biogas production certificates (CPB) – released from public consultation last November. This system, introduced in 2021 by the Climate and Resilience law and launched by a first text in April 2022, should allow biomethane producers to benefit from another Source of remuneration from gas suppliers. The latter will have to, from 2026, declare a minimum biomethane incorporation rate to their customers. “For this, it is still necessary that the trajectory of the level of obligation set by the State be published and that the decree expressing it in number of CPB to be returned per volume of gas supplied regulates it”remarks Frédéric Terrisse, president of the SER renewable gas commission, referring to the publication of the first “by summer”, according to his information. “This system has, moreover, been designed to complement and then succeed the purchase price issued to large installations [avec une capacité supérieure à 25 gigawattheures par an, NDLR]by call for tenders in 2024.” However, the sector is still waiting for the launch of the call for projects, promised since 2021, to support biomethane producers far from the network and wishing to valorize it in the form of sustainable fuel (or bioNGV).
Beyond the necessary financial visibility, to de-risk the projects launched and encourage the realization of new ones, Laurence Poirier-Dietz, general director of GRDF, insists, on the other hand, on the importance of “unbridling” facilities with the greatest potential. “Producers must be given the opportunity to increase the maximum capacity (or Cmax). According to our calculations, if all the methanizers installed in injection [au nombre de 652 à la fin de l’année 2023, NDLR] benefited from such a removal of the ceiling, they could increase their production by 25 to 30%, or 3 additional terawatt hours, in three to four months. » Clearly, this proposal would return, by decree, to a text from June 2023 already authorizing this Cmax to be reviewed once a year, rather than every two years previously. Furthermore, always with the idea of bringing “more flexibility” to professionals, the SER is campaigning for amendments along these lines in the simplification bill which will be presented by the Ministry of the Economy this Wednesday, April 24 to the Council of Ministers. “Project leaders sometimes have to send the same information five to seven times a year, to as many different public entities, to move their project forward”underlines for example Frédéric Terrisse.
Leave room for other technologies
652
This is the number of methanizers whose biomethane production is injected into the natural gas network, in 2023.
However, methanization is not the only path that these organizations wish to see supported. Sandrine Meunier, the new general director of GRTgaz, is counting in particular on the implementation of a first call for projects dedicated to pyrogasification – another promise made by the Government. “If we want to produce 60 terawatt hours of renewable gas in 2030, we will need to count on at least 6 terawatt hours produced by pyrogasification. » In 2022, 49 projects, representing 4.1 terawatt hours per year (TWh/year) of cumulative power, were identified through a call for expressions of interest opened by the strategic committee for the New Energy Systems sector (CSF NSE). But currently only eight are registered in the instruction register queue – alongside four methanation projects. “Support for pyrogasification will not, however, be done without a minimum of visibility on the priorities given to the use of biomass, on which it partly depends”recalls the president of the SER, Jules Nyssen, echoing the new scientific interest group (GIS) set up for this purpose by the Ministry of Agriculture last March.
And the latter adds that he “It will also be necessary for the new Multi-Annual Energy Program (PPE) to give their place to these other biogas production technologies such as pyrogasification, hydrothermal gasification and methanation”. However, he deplores, “we have no French energy-climate strategy, no programming law, no PPE, nor much else. We do not even have a stated political vision of what the energy transition of tomorrow should be.”
Article published on April 23, 2024
