Dual gas‐power low carbon energy system gains popularity in Europe

• Date: 01 April 2019
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/oet.12677
• Published date: 01 April 2019

GAS AND POWER

Dual gas-power low carbon energy system gains popularity

in Europe

EU policymakers and gas and power grid operators in north-

ern Europe are switching from a focus on an all-electric

energy system to meet zero-carbon goals by 2050, to one

based on a combination of green power and (eventually

zero-carbon) gas networks.

Much of Europe has already made progress in cutting

carbon dioxide emissions—the United Kingdom, for exam-

ple, they are down by 38%

1

compared to 1990 levels (mostly

from cuts in the power sector), and further additions to off-

shore wind capacity and an accelerating switch to EVs will

further boost that over coming years. However, there are

clearly areas where little progress has been made, and where

innovative thinking appears to be needed to meet legally

binding EU and UK emissions targets.

These areas include how to address the intermittent nature

of most renewables, especially in higher latitudes, where

solar is low for half the year; along with the huge potential

cost of electrifying heating systems and meeting peak winter

heating demand with green power. There are also some

applications where it is impossible to use electricity (which

must eventually be 100% green), such as high-temperature

industrial processes. Transition costs are also an issue, with

most analysis suggesting systems that include some gas gen-

eration, combined with carbon capture and storage (CCS),

offer the lowest cost route to a zero-carbon system.

Gasunie and TenneT, which are both active as grid opera-

tors in Netherlands and Germany, recently undertook a

scenario-based study

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(Infrastructure Outlook 2050), looking

at how to best achieve a zero-carbon energy system by

2050. The scenarios vary according to total power demand

and the degree of international connectivity, but all point to

similar conclusions—the best way is through a combined

use of the gas and power networks, and both companies are

now fully behind this approach.

In such a system, gas would be used to backup intermit-

tent renewable power and is steadily decarbonized beyond

2030 in both heating and power systems—including through

the use of CCS, according to Klaus Dieter Borchardt,

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Director of the Internal Energy Market at the European

Commission, who also favors the approach. Surplus renew-

able power would be converted to hydrogen (power-to-gas)

and stored in the gas network to be used when required by

power, industrial and retail customers (initially likely to be

mixed with methane).

Speaking with me in December, Dr Borchardt noted that

it cost €260 mn/y just to curtail a single wind farm in north-

ern Germany (a measure employed when output is too high),

“which is money that could go towards investing in hydro-

gen production.”He said the European Commission wanted

to see a large power-to-gas plant developed to test the hydro-

gen production technology at scale: “I would like most of

the regulatory restraints stripped away, so a company can

develop such a project more freely - on the condition that

results are available to everybody.”

He said incorporating gas into the energy system of the

future also made use of existing infrastructure, reducing expense

andstrandedassets:“If you kick out gas you make the whole

gas grid a stranded asset. We are still investing heavily, but we

should stop immediately if we were only looking at a 5-10-year

use for the infrastructure. If you want to do things in the most

cost-effective way, you need to use both power and gas.”

The Gasunie/TenneT report does not mention CCS, but

mirrors Borcha rdt’s model in other ways. It concludes that as

well as a strong gas and electricity backbone, the new energy

system would require gas and power storage facilities, to

secure supply to all forms of final consumption at any moment

in time. “The study shows the requirements and limitations of

a future energy system based on solar and wind energy. With

these highly fluctuating sources of energy, we need strong gas

and electricity infrastructures that are seamlesslycoordinated,”

said Han Fennema, CEO of Gasunie, adding that it would also

keep the system reliable and affordable.

1|WHAT ROLE FOR

NATURAL GAS?

While the report is clear about the need for hydrogen, it does

not (unlike Dr Borchardt) specifically mention CCS and nat-

ural gas, even in the context of production of hydrogen from

methane (as is the plan at HyNet

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) in Northwest England.

Nevertheless, efficient CCGTs run on natural gas with CCS

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