I attended the Renewable Gas Forum Ireland (RGFI) Biomethane Conference last week in my capacity as Chairman of Arigna Group, one of the largest producers of biochar in the world. Key takeaways:
+ Eamon Ryan said the biomethane strategy must fit in with overall land use strategy and environmental constraints. Grass production is our natural competitive advantage and is the natural feedstock.
+ Harmen Dekker, CEO of the European Biogas Association said that the key factors for success of biomethane were the regulatory framework, biomethane production must be sustainable, access to and cost of access the gas grid, cross border trade of gas, ongoing R&D and how digestate and CO2 is dealt with.
+ Denis Drennan of the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association – ICMSA pointed out that there are many siloed govt departments that are setting targets for land use (forestry, nature restoration, food security etc.) and he expressed concern about policy coordination.
+ The key points from the All Island Approach panel, moderated by Stephen Robb of the Irish Farmers Journal, consisted of Jonathan McFerran of DAERA, Redmond McEvoy of Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Karen Doyle of Gas Networks Ireland and Jonathan Martindale of Phoenix Energy were that ROI can learn lessons from the roll out of AD in NI namely turning the nutrients into digestate does not solve the excess nitrogen and phosphorus problem.
+ Brugha Duffy has been working with Carbon AMS and is now ready to start construction on his 40GW AD plant in Meath. He believes that most farms could double grass output and he has worked with local farmers to ensure supply of feedstock and to take digestate.
+ The panel on Ireland Next Steps, moderated by Paul Murphy of Climeaction, consisting of Paul Crosson of Teagasc, Noel Banville of Irish Farmers Association, Kieran Tarpey of Entrust Services and Eoin Brennan at Flogas Enterprise. Key issues that need to be addressed; upskilling of farmers to produce more grass and ability to use digestate as a part of the nitrate allowance.
+ The Financing Master Class moderated by Gary Borland of KPMG Ireland with Tom O’Brien of Nephin Energy and Teresa O’Flynn of Ara Partners noted traditional lenders will not get involved until the concept is proven. The forthcoming RHO must support indigenous biomethane, there needs to be a large energy user policy to create a market, there is a concern that there is resistance to gas injection and critically the state agencies who will facilitate biomethane strategy must be adequately resourced.
+ Philipp Lukas of Future Biogas said their strategy is to focus on large (160GW) plants for economies of scale and to sell to customers who are willing to pay full (unsubsidised) price for the gas.
+ James Russell of Biocore Environmental outlined their strategy of producing biogas from waste for electricity and their plans to upgrade to biomethane and construct six additional plants by 2030.
