Abstract
The Dutch residential sector is locked-in into natural gas for the supply of heat. The expected depletion of national reserves and induced earthquakes in the production area are reasons to aim to escape this lock-in. The Dutch government and key players in the natural gas sector have expressed large green gas ambitions. This paper explores the opportunities and barriers of biomass gasification for green gas production and application in the residential sector. The Technological Innovation Systems and Multi-Level Perspective were applied as sustainability transition frameworks to explore the current technological state of biomass gasification and the developments in the residential sector. Four limitations were observed from a supply perspective; little financial space for demonstration plants, absence of technology specific policy, lagging market developments and insecurities related to biomass availability. On the demand side, clear barriers hampering change are observed, providing large opportunities for green gas. Key players in the natural gas regime take no substantial responsibility, despite their potential ability to contribute to overcoming systemic barriers. Therefore, this research concludes that the current green gas ambitions set by the Dutch government are not feasible and that the government may address this with technology specific policy, substantial research and development subsidies and funding.
Highlights
The necessity for a transition of the energy system is determined by a number of factors relevant on different geographical scales
The captivity of the residential sector is addressed by exploring the absence or presence of six potential barriers, hampering diffusion of renewable energy technology, provided by Reference [18]
Biomass gasification technology for green gas can be considered an incremental innovation and its future contribution is not expected to result in a regime shift
Summary
The necessity for a transition of the energy system is determined by a number of factors relevant on different geographical scales. On a European scale there are three main policy objectives; mitigation of climate change, security of energy supply and economic competitiveness i.e., affordable energy prices [1,2]. These objectives have trickled down to the individual member states, who all have their individual challenges to fulfil such objectives, related to the design of their specific energy systems. The different targets for the share of renewable sources for the individual member states in Annex I of the Renewable Energy Directive [3] emphasise the different starting points for the mitigation of climate change of the member states, and implicitly take into account the individual challenges from the member states.
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