WGC: Global Utilities Group in Renewable Gas Collaboration

WASHINGTON, DC - Southern California Gas (SoCalGas), Canadian utility Energir (formerly Gaz Metro of Quebec) and French utilities GRDF and GRTgaz said June 28 they have joined forces to advance the research and development of renewable natural gas and related technologies.

The collaboration, announced here on the sidelines of the triennial World Gas Conference, will focus on research and development, public policy, and outreach.

“Advances in natural gas technologies have helped clean our air and reduce emissions linked to climate change,” said Sharon Tomkins, vice president of customer solutions and strategy for SoCalGas. “We are excited to collaborate with our French and Canadian counterparts to speed up the development of the next generation of innovations including renewable natural gas, solar-powered hydrogen generation, fuel cells, power-to-gas and other technologies.”

The collaboration will build upon successes each company has earned in achieving policy initiatives and the development and advancement of new technologies. It will also serve as an opportunity to learn from research and development initiatives currently under development and corresponding regulatory frameworks.

France, for example, has adopted a renewable gas standard that calls for renewable natural gas to make up at least 30% of natural gas consumption by 2030.

“The energy transition with renewable gas needs to be advocated to become a reality worldwide,” said Laurent Thery, international and business development director for GRTgaz. “Our leading companies in California, Quebec and France promote renewable gas in our regions and countries to reach that goal.”

In California, SoCalGas is supporting legislation that would require 5% of core natural gas consumption in the state to come from renewable sources by 2030, while Energir has a target to distribute 5% percent of renewable natural gas by 2025 and is working towards efforts to have a fully developed renewable natural gas marketplace by 2020.

“In this energy transition era, we believe renewable natural gas is a powerful tool in the fight against climate change, as well as being a significant contributor to energy self-reliance and the circular economy,” said Martin Imbleau, a senior vice president at Energir. “This collaboration with our partners will allow us to share our progress and results toward our environmental and social objectives.”

One key to advancing renewable energy resources is the research and development of long-term energy storage solutions that will, among other goals, monetise the estimated 3.3-7.8 GWh of surplus solar and wind energy that will be wasted in California between now and 2025.

SoCalGas is supporting the research and development of technologies that can harness that excess renewable electricity and convert it into energy that can be transported and stored for prolonged periods of time using existing infrastructure to deliver economic benefits to the state’s ratepayers.

Last year it launched a US project that converts hydrogen generated from excess renewable power into pipeline quality natural gas for use in homes, businesses and transportation. If all of the available surplus renewable energy were converted through this biomethanation process and stored as renewable natural gas, it would provide enough energy to heat as many as 370,000 homes or provide electricity to up to 187,000 homes.

Energir is also studying biomethanation, and has been delivering renewable natural gas through pipelines to customers in Saint-Hyacinthe since December 2017.

And in France, GRTgaz has begun construction on an industrial-scale power-to-gas demonstration project that will convert surplus electricity generated by wind farms on the Mediterranean coast of southern France into hydrogen and methane syngas which will then be injected into France’s gas distribution system.

Currently, there are 50 active renewable natural gas injection sites in France with an additional 800 projects in progress. Estimates show that up to 776 GWh/yr of renewable natural gas can be injected into the French natural gas network, which is equivalent to the annual consumption of more than 63,600 households or nearly 3,000 buses.