European Solar Thermal Industry Federation

5th Member States’ Gas Forum: The Case for Gas in the Energy Union

Date: 12 Apr 2016
Category: Solar Heat News

Natural gas is one of the main energy sources in today’s energy mix. The entire discussion on the Energy Union started because of a new threat over the gas supply from Russia to the European Union.

Also for solar thermal solutions, not being currently a 100% solution, the combination with gas is a common one and in some cases has been identified as a cost-optimal solution for the reduction of costs and emissions.

In this sense, the ESTIF Board decided that it was important to have a better understanding of the priorities and challenges being faced by the gas sector.

One of the main events for the European gas sector, on the policy side, is their annual Member States’ Forum. ESTIF was represented in this event by its Secretary-General, Pedro Dias.

The conference covered the topics on infrastructure investments, including LNG and storage and the role of gas in flexible, innovative and sustainable Energy Union.

The gas sector is currently faced with much uncertainty. Not only there are important stranded assets, namely gas fired power plants that are idle as they cannot compete with other power generation options today, there is also lack of clarity about the evolution of gas demand in the coming years in different sectors. While in transport opportunities arise for gas use in heavy duty (trucks, machinery) and shipping, this is still a relatively limited market in the short term.

The main markets for gas today are changing, in particularly the power sector is changing rapidly and gas is seen as a good backup for variable RES (wind and PV). But this does not assure large numbers in terms of additions to the demand today.

On the heating sector there is increased competition, with energy efficiency reducing demand but also with electrification and even RES use in heating and cooling. Some potential alternatives for the future, namely in terms of technologies were mentioned. While the combination of gas condensing boilers and solar thermal are seen as a possibility, these are already in the market. Other options discussed included gas fired heat pumps and micro-cogeneration.

For more information contact the ESTIF secretariat: pedro.dias(at)estif.org

 

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