Isra-Mart srl : Centrica ignites pilot light on UK's first green gas demo

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Isra-Mart srl news:

Centrica has today used the opening of the UK's first green gas pilot project to call on the government to secure the future of the emerging renewable gas industry, by delivering an attractive incentive scheme for renewable heat.

The utility flicked the switch on the first of five biomethane gas pilot projects today at Thames Water's sewage works in Didcot, and is planning to bring a second project online at the end of this week at Adnams brewery in Suffolk.

Each of the two 100,000-therm facilities are slated to produce enough renewable gas to power 200 homes a year, with another three similar-sized pilot projects due to come online next year.

The £2.5m Didcot facility uses an anaerobic digestion system to turn sewage sludge into biomethane. Impurities are then removed from the biomethane before it is fed into the gas grid.

The whole process – from flushing a toilet to gas being piped to people's homes – takes about 20 days, said Centrica.

The completion of the pilot project represents a major step forward for a green gas sector, which according to a National Grid study could account for at least 15 per cent of the domestic gas market by 2020.

Energy and climate change secretary Chris Huhne hailed the facility as the start of a new era of renewable energy.

"It's not every day that a secretary of state can announce that, for the first time ever in the UK, people can cook and heat their homes with gas generated from sewage," he said. "This is an historic day for the companies involved, for energy-from-waste technologies, and for progress to increase the amount of renewable energy in the UK."

However, speaking to BusinessGreen.com, a Centrica spokesman warned the industry's 15 per cent target will only be achievable if the coalition delivers an attractive Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI).

"The challenge is how these projects are financed," he said. "If you generate electricity, you get subsidies through the feed-in tariff, or Renewable Obligations, but there is nothing for renewable gas."

The Department for Energy and Climate Change is expected to confirm the fate of the RHI after the Comprehensive Spending Review is revealed later this month.

Speaking at the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham yesterday, Cabinet Office minister Oliver Letwin signalled the RHI would survive the spending review, hailing it as "a crucial part of cutting carbon".

However, it remains unclear at what level the RHI will be set when it is formally launched next April.

Centrica today warned that the future growth of the green gas sector will only be possible with an RHI rate of at least £1.20 per therm.

"The real question is about the level of the subsidy," said the spokesman. " Once the RHI comes into place, there will be more incentives to build these projects and that will bring the costs down, but it needs to be at a level of £1.20 per therm."