Opportunities and Barriers for Biomass Gasification for Green Gas in the Dutch Residential Sector

The Dutch residential sector is locked-in into natural gas for the supply of heat. The expected depletion of national reserves and induced earthquakes in the production area are reasons to aim to escape this lock-in. The Dutch government and key players in the natural gas sector have expressed large green gas ambitions. This paper explores the opportunities and barriers of biomass gasification for green gas production and application in the residential sector. The Technological Innovation Systems and Multi-Level Perspective were applied as sustainability transition frameworks to explore the current technological state of biomass gasification and the developments in the residential sector. Four limitations were observed from a supply perspective; little financial space for demonstration plants, absence of technology specific policy, lagging market developments and insecurities related to biomass availability. On the demand side, clear barriers hampering change are observed, providing large opportunities for green gas. Key players in the natural gas regime take no substantial responsibility, despite their potential ability to contribute to overcoming systemic barriers. Therefore, this research concludes that the current green gas ambitions set by the Dutch government are not feasible and that the government may address this with technology specific policy, substantial research and development subsidies and funding