Renewable Natural Gas: The Climate Change Solution with Limited Awareness of Its Potential

by Michael Bakas (Utility Dive/Ameresco) When it comes to addressing climate change, we must pursue the many diverse approaches for reducing carbon emissions. One of the most overlooked opportunities in our arsenal today is renewable natural gas (RNG). It's simply not getting enough attention in relationship to its potential for major impact.

RNG is natural gas derived from processing raw biogas, which is produced from industry, agriculture and waste management. The most common source of biogas — which consists largely of methane — is the breakdown of organic waste at wastewater treatment plants and landfills. And methane is at least 28 times more potent than carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere. By capturing waste methane and processing it to make RNG, we can avoid its negative effects while also decreasing reliance on fossil fuels.

With RNG, instead of extracting sequestered natural gas from the ground to use as a fuel source, we can repurpose what already exists, creating a "green gas" that is interchangeable with traditional pipeline-quality natural gas. And, RNG acts as a baseload resource when other renewable sources, such as wind and solar, simply cannot.

An immediate benefit of RNG plants is their ability to create new revenue streams for municipalities, farmers and industrial companies that can sell this resource into the natural gas grid to generate income.

SoCalGas has made a commitment to replace 20% of its traditional natural gas supply with RNG by 2030. A study by Navigant Consulting found that replacing 16% of California's natural gas supply with RNG would cut greenhouse gas emissions as much as converting all state buildings to electric-only energy by 2030.

The RFS program has supported the development of the RNG market since 2014, and exponential growth will require a more robust role for RNG in the future. READ MORE