The Netherlands has recently postponed the start of its green gas blending obligation from January 2025 to January 2026 – Dutch gas distributors will be required to blend an annual percentage of unsubsidised (no-sde) domestic produced biomethane in the natural gas consumption for the heating market.

By implementing a long-term legal framework, the Dutch government aims at boosting domestic production to more than 10TWh/year (1.1 Bcm) of biomethane by 2030.  Yet, in 2022, slightly more than 2TWh (0.2 Bcm) of biomethane were injected into the grid in the Netherlands – representing less than 1% of the Dutch gas consumption. 

The target by 2030 has now been adjusted to 3.8 Mton CO2 chain emissions reduction (equivalent to more than 10TWh/year of biomethane) while the buy-out prices for Energy suppliers have been lowered from 500€/ton to 450€/ton of CO2.

Furthermore, end-user group of the obligation will be aligned with and broadened to the new European Emissions Trading Scheme for Energy Suppliers (ETS2).

Finally, the manure part for digestion target has been lowered – still 2.4 Mton CO2 out of 3.8 Mton CO2 chain emission reduction are expected to be reached with it (see chart).