Target workshop held for the set-up of registries and integration into the European network

About 20 participants from the Italian private sector involved in biomethane and biogas production and 20 project partners attended the second target workshop of the REGATRACE project, which was held in Milan last week. After a short introduction of the REGATRACE project, a brief explanation of the German biogas registry took place, followed by an insight on the situation of countries with existing registries (Austria, Denmark, France, Switzerland) and an outlook on target countries (Ireland, Poland, Romania, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Lithuania). The framework conditions and the functionalities of the Estonian biomethane registry were also described.

The strategies for renewable gases in Italy were also presented. The Italian legislative framework considers an incentive scheme for promoting the use of biomethane in the transport sector (up to 1.1 billion m³/yr. by 2022) and the issuance of GO for the use of biomethane in all other sectors. Additionally, the Integrated National Plan for Energy and Climate 2030 considers a GHG reduction of 46 MtCO²eq (with respect to 2005) and a 21.6% share of renewable gases in the gross final energy consumption by 2030. The Italian Government aims at extending the use of biomethane to the maritime sector and as a means for decarbonizing the power and cooling & heating sectors. Biomethane is also considered to have a high potential for the development of the industrial sector, particularly in high-temperatures processes. Finally, Italy is also building and evaluating scenarios where hydrogen will play a key role in the energy supply in the industrial, transport and household sectors, mainly.

ERGaR (European Renewable Gas Registry) presented their objective of establishing an independent, transparent and trustworthy documentation scheme for cross-border transfer and mass balancing of renewable gas injected into the European natural gas network. For achieving this objective, ERGaR is developing an electronic hub that will start operation in the first quarter of 2020, enabling a standardized transfer of biomethane certificates in Europe (mass balancing and GO scheme). Additionally, AIB introduced their concept regarding the application of EECS (European Energy Certificate System) rules to renewable gases, highlighting the importance of using standards and showing a comparison with the AIB Hub used for trading of renewable electricity certificates. Finally, AGCS presented the concept of European Biomethane Guarantees of Origin and the Guidelines for Establishing a National Renewable Gas Registry. The latter belongs to Work Package 3 from REGATRACE and considers a stakeholder analysis for setting-up a master database and develop pilot IT systems (based on the Austrian application) in the project’s target countries. For this last matter, REGATRACE will provide support, manuals and trainings to the target countries.

For further information please contact:

Deutsche Energie-Agentur GmbH (dena)
German Energy Agency
Milenko Matosic
Chausseestrasse 128 a
10115 Berlin, Germany

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