The PM’s plan to bring energy prices into line with Europe will fall short because it ignores the lessons that Europe has learned. It overlooks the one homegrown energy source that can cut costs in the transition to net zero: green gas.
The announcement of the creation of Great British Grid focuses entirely on building and connecting new electricity infrastructure. Yet the Anaerobic Digestion & Bioresources Association (ADBA)’s 2024 report, The Role of Green Gas in Net Zero: Cutting the Cost of Keeping the Lights On, found that greater use of British biomethane could cut the cost of net zero by £298 billion to 2050, equivalent to £415 a year for every household.
The analysis used the same energy system assumptions as Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) and National Energy System Operator (NESO) and identified savings in electricity transmission investment because biomethane travels through the gas network the country already owns.
The National Audit Office (NAO) have found that the UK’s electricity transmission network needs to be upgraded with an estimated cost of £70bn and that many hold ups to the upgrades are not down to a lack of funding or competition, but a lack of skilled workers and supply chain constraints meaning that orders placed today will not be delivered until 2029 at the earliest.
By backing British biomethane production with uncommitted money from Great British Energy’s existing funding, an additional 10TWh of energy could be online by 2030 – energy which can be used to heat British homes, power the reindustrialisation of the UK, and insulating us against international energy spikes – especially by reducing our reliance on LNG imports from the USA. It does this all while decarbonising, contributing to carbon removals, and supporting British farmers and the rural economy.
Best of all, this gas will be transported through existing infrastructure, already under our roads and fields transporting and storing energy for years to come.
Chris Huhne, Chair of ADBA, said:
“The Prime Minister says the energy market is broken, and he’s right. But his answer is to pour more money into wires while overlooking a British fuel that can cut the cost of net zero by £415 a year for every household through pipes already under our feet.
France has some of the cheapest electricity in Europe and yet is growing its green gas sector faster than anywhere else because Paris understands the value of a storable, reliable and ready renewable fuel. Green gas can keep the lights on during long winter nights when there is no sun and little wind.
Biomethane is made here from our own waste, runs through pipes we have already paid for, and protects families from the imported gas shocks driving up their bills.
Building grid is necessary, but it is slow and expensive. Green gas is ready now. A government serious about closing the gap with Europe cannot keep leaving it out of the plan.”
