France gets it, Denmark gets it, Europe gets it – so when will Australia ‘get it’ around the decarbonisation potential of biomethane?
Entering into 2025, I find myself asking one big question – is this the year that Australia’s renewable energy and decarbonisation advocates finally ‘get it’ on the topic of biomethane?
I ended 2024 with a leisurely trip to Europe in which it wasn’t only the food, wine and beautiful architecture that stood out to me. Rather, one of the first things I noticed – quite literally as I was getting off the plane – was Europe’s commitment to biomethane.
This commitment met me upon my arrival and departure in Paris’s Charles de Gaulle Airport thanks to a series of billboards by TotalEnergies. A major renewable energy player in France, its billboards proudly showed off images of its renewable energy portfolio – with wind, solar, and biomethane facilities pictured side by side.
Imagine that – a renewable electricity company that promotes renewable gas, rather than combats it.
TotalEnergies is not alone in Europe. The continent boasts over 20,000 biogas and 1400 biomethane facilities as of 2023. Denmark is a particular standout case satisfying 40 per cent of domestic gas demand in this manner.
But arriving back home in Australia, I was met head on with the false dichotomy of the Australian decarbonisation debate – a debate in which you’re either for electrifying everything or branded as a fossil fuel apologist for suggesting alternatives.
A debate in which one jurisdiction, the ACT, is so committed to their gas ban that they rather tell all commercial and industrial gas users reliant on Type B gas appliances that they will have to move to specific industrial estates to continue operating their businesses.
A debate in which another jurisdiction, Victoria, is (at the time of writing) consulting on policy that assumes gas bans are a given, while preparing to release consultation to ‘consider’ their long-held gas ban policy.
And a debate in which energy consumer advocates fail to respond to government consultation which proposes the curtailment of gas customer rights, while proposing regulatory reform which would push up customer prices in the name of electrification.
But, alas, I can’t half blame them when our national science agency’s own analysis proposes electrifying everything – as discussed in my last article – and when not a single Australian energy retailer is marketing a retail renewable gas product.
Luckily, there is light on the horizon. The AEMO forecasting process which asks CSIRO to model gas electrification has started to undertake its own investigation into the true cost and availability of biomethane. This analysis is expected to become a required input for CSIRO modelling from here on.
Additionally, CSIRO energy research leaders have now met with APGA, AGIG and GAMAA at AGIG’s HyHome in Melbourne. Here we discussed the reality of 100 per cent hydrogen appliances – which CSIRO typically exclude from gas decarbonisation modelling due to “not being available” – while surrounded by 100 per cent hydrogen appliances.
While the impasse between renewable electricity and renewable gas holds back Australia’s energy transition today, it looks like there is hope for a nuanced approach to decarbonisation in the years to come.
I just hope we can progress before the Australian public gives up on the transition altogether thanks to the impracticality and unwieldy cost of a one-size-fits-all energy transition.
This feature also appears in the January edition of The Australian Pipeliner.