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Apr 292 min read

Green gas

Updated: Jun 5


Can it really be green?


We’re familiar with generating electricity from renewable sources, but some energy suppliers are advertising “green gas”.  What does this mean, and can gas actually be renewable?


The answer to this isn’t always straight forward.  Bio-methane can be produced by the anaerobic digestion of biomass, normally plant matter.  This basically means letting it rot in a closed tank and collecting the gas.  This is then fed into the grid and burns in the same way as fossil fuel gas.


The real question is where the biomass comes from.  Sometimes it is waste, for example from farms or food production, and sometimes it is a crop grown for the purpose.


Ecotricity, which estimates about 1% of it’s gas is currently green, uses grass grown specifically for the purpose.  They say the grass land they use can provide habitats for wildlife and contribute to biodiversity.  They also say they avoid using artificial fertilisers to minimise the impact, and that they use “marginal’ land that has limited agricultural value.  While I don’t doubt this, if we were to produce a significant proportion of our gas in this way the land area needed would be huge, and it would undoubtably have an impact on our countryside.  


Good Energy say they produce about 10% of their gas supply from food and farm waste, which probably has less environmental impact, but again it’s doubtful whether this could produce a significant portion of our total current demand.  


Green tariffs compensate for the fact that most of our gas comes from fossil fuel, by offsetting the carbon emissions.  This is often done by investing in other sustainable energy projects, often in other parts of the world.  This can include the installation of solar, wind or bio-gas generation, which then hopefully reduces the demand for fossil fuels elsewhere.


As with green electricity tariffs, offsetting can be useful as part of the transition to sustainable generation, but it isn’t a long term solution.  The most important thing is that we know what we are actually paying for from our energy suppliers, and that we are looking for ways to use energy as efficiently as possible.


My previous article on green electricity tariffs is available here:  https://www.drgssc.com/post/how-green-are-green-tariffs


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