Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 3 May 2023

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine

Biomethane Renewable Gas: Discussion

Mr. David Kelly:

I am not sure if the Deputy is aware of how the gas network was built and how some locations in the country have gas and some do not. We have 15,000 km of grid infrastructure in place and pretty much 100% of it is underground. What justifies GNI building infrastructure is an anchor load, typically a commercial load, that justifies the commercial investment. The regulator oversees that. It is highly auditable and is a very thorough process. What we are seeing now, where there is not a justification to build out further gas grid, is where there is a large concentration of feedstock and a large anaerobic digestion plant could be built, that potentially justifies the build-out in a community of a heating platform using the thermal from that AD as it is designed and built. There are a number of projects under consideration. It is very early days. There are a number of obvious locations where there is a concentration of feedstock, largely in the waste space, and it is something we are exploring. However, it is early days.