GasNZ’s inaugural Matariki event held in July has set the stage for this to be an annual opportunity for us “to stop, rest, eat, celebrate, and begin our new year”, chief executive Janet Carson says.

 “Celebrating Matariki is part of the new GasNZ. We will hold an annual event at this time that recognises where we currently are and contemplates the future, and we will host the people closest to us to join us in this occasion.”

 The future the gas sector is embarking on is a marked departure from the past, Carson says.

 It will be a transition to low-carbon, renewable gases and these will form a key part in New Zealand’s decarbonisation journey. Processed into bio-methane, gas captured from waste water and landfills provide a solution to decarbonise gas and utilise organic waste at the same time.

 Around 70 of GasNZ’s key stakeholders attended.

 As part of the event, a panel discussion on the potential of renewable gas included chief executive of Firstgas, Paul Goodeve, Heather Leggett, chief marketing officer from Australian engineering and equipment supplier, Eneraque Renewables, and Cristiano Marantes, chief executive of Ara Ake.

 Attendees heard that there is plenty of energy in organic waste, allowing renewable gas to replace that sourced from fossil fuels.  

 Panellist Heather Leggett agreed that bioenergy was a critical part of our energy future, but that public awareness of the potential of biogas was low.

 She said Eneraque Renewables had been working in waste energy for around 40 years.

 “I like to look at biogas in Australia as being like a band that’s suddenly really, really famous – they’re an overnight success – but when you have a look at their history, you realise they’ve been playing in basements for 15 years.”

 It’s the same with biogas, she says.

 “It’s really been in the last five years that it’s started to be taken seriously.

 “Being taken seriously means investing a hell of a lot of cash into biogas and biomethane projects.”

 Fellow panellist, Paul Goodeve said that working jointly with Ecogas, Firstgas had invested in New Zealand’s first large-scale biogas to pipeline project to turn biogas from Ecogas’s Repora anaerobic digestion facility into pipeline ready biomethane, the low carbon equivalent of natural gas.

He said Firstgas was investing because it had confidence in the real potential biogas offers.

This confidence was backed up by the international experience, where renewable gas has been identified as a key pillar of decarbonisation in Europe.

 Cristiano Marantes said he was very optimistic about the role of biogas in a low-carbon energy future. Harvesting biogas from waste had the potential to not only reduce organic waste that would otherwise go to landfills, but to gain real value from it.

“While waste reduction should be a top priority, the waste that is left can be used in the form of biogas to reduce emissions, produce useful energy - both for heat and electricity - and other valuable products from waste such as bio-char and bio-CO2.