Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Table 19.3
Selected tracking schemes for biomethane in Europe
Country, name of
tracking scheme
Initiation and operation
Website
Germany:
Biogasregister
Deutschland
.
Initated by the German
Energy Agency (dena) and 14
companies from the
biomethane market
www.biogasregister.de
Operated by dena
.
Since 2011
.
Netherlands: Vertogas
Initiated by gas grid operator
Gasunie
www.vertogas.nl
.
Operated by Vertogas
.
Since 2009
.
UK: Green Gas
Certification Scheme
Intiated by Renewable Energy
Association (REA) and
founding partners
www.greengas.org.uk
.
Since 2011
.
therefore preferred by trading parties: they do not need to organize any gas
transport and they can trade the certificates as a separate commodity.
The vision for biomethane to be an equal player and to replace natural
gas in significant amounts in the gas grid strengthens the need to apply mass
balancing systems for transport. With increasing biomethane feed-in, the
gas grid needs to be more and more decentralized. It is then no longer
acceptable that biomethane producers do not bear their share of the costs in
this conversion process: book and claim mechanisms would allow them to
do so because transport balancing is avoided. Therefore, in the case of
biomethane, the use of mass balancing systems might become the future
path.
19.4 European mass balancing schemes for biomethane
A few mass balancing certification schemes have evolved in Europe, as
shown in Table 19.3. In Switzerland, labelling has been carried out in the
'naturemade' scheme since 2009 and Denmark has used its 'Energi-net'
scheme since December 2011. These schemes do not follow any common
standard because they are tailored to fit each nation's situation. Austria's
mass balancing system is scheduled to start operation in mid 2012.
A mass balancing system keeps track of the amounts of biomethane
transported from production to final application. Any trading or splitting of
amounts is tracked and accompanied by a corresponding transaction inside
the system. Double marketing of amounts inside the mass balancing system
is impossible due to precise amount registration. It is possible to trace back
to source any biomethane amount inside the mass balancing system, making
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