“Urgent policy and market action" is required to ensure Ireland has sufficient biomethane production to deliver on its 2030 targets.

That's according to the Renewable Gas Forum Ireland (RGFI), who issued the warning following the opening of Gas Networks Ireland’s new €32 million central grid injection facility at Mitchelstown.

The facility has the potential to inject up to 700 GWh of biomethane annually into the national gas network at full capacity – equivalent to approximately 12% of the government’s 5.7 TWh biomethane target for 2030.

RGFI welcomed the opening of the facility as “an important foundation" for Ireland’s indigenous biomethane industry.

However, it stated that Ireland will not reach the government’s target at the current pace of policy and market delivery.

RGFI CEO Nick Bennett said: “Ireland is not currently on a trajectory to achieve the 2030 target.

“The infrastructure now being delivered – both by Gas Networks Ireland and by developers – must be matched by the market support mechanisms, policy certainty and implementation timeline required to unlock investment.”

‘Milestone’

Bennet described the Mitchelstown site as an “important milestone” which “demonstrates what can be achieved when ambition is translated into delivery”.

He added that Gas Networks Ireland has put a significant piece of strategic infrastructure in place, noting that a number of developers are progressing projects to come on stream over the next 12 months.

Bennet said: “However, despite private capital being available and demand emerging from energy users, many additional projects remain on hold awaiting the necessary government action.

“With just over three years remaining to 2030, Ireland still has no certainty on the long-awaited Renewable Heat Obligation, nor has government put in place a multi-annual capital support framework or addressed the planning, regulatory and market barriers that continue to affect investment decisions.”

According to Bennet, cross-departmental action is required to “unlock the wider value from anaerobic digestion”.

The RGFI CEO said that this includes the potential for digestate to support nutrient recovery and fertiliser replacement, alongside the development of markets for biogenic CO₂ and other valuable co-products.

He continued: “Without these issues being addressed, there is a real risk that Ireland will not develop sufficient biomethane production at the scale required to fully utilise strategic infrastructure such as the new Mitchelstown injection facility and meet the national target of 5.7 TWh.

“The scale of the opportunity now needs to be matched by the pace of government delivery.”

Opportunity

According to RGFI, the opportunities presented by developing an indigenous biomethane industry extend "considerably" beyond renewable energy.

It said that biomethane can provide an indigenous, storable renewable gas to help decarbonise industrial heat and other hard-to-electrify energy uses, while reducing Ireland’s reliance on imported fossil gas.

According to RGFI, biomethane can also underpin a wider circular bioeconomy in rural Ireland that can:

Source farm and food-based feedstocks to produce renewable gas;
Return nutrients to the land through digestate and bio-fertiliser;
Create opportunities for higher-value biogenic CO₂ and other bio-refinery co-products.

Bennett added: “Biomethane connects a number of Ireland’s most important policy challenges.

"It can strengthen energy security, provide competitive pathways for industry to decarbonise, support farm incomes and rural enterprise, and create new opportunities around bio-fertilisers, water quality management and the wider circular bioeconomy."

The RGFI CEO said the opening of the Mitchelstown facilit demonstrates that the infrastructure is being built and the industry is moving.

However, he added: "The priority now is to ensure that policy and market development keep pace.”