Abstract for: Political Power-Play at its best – the case study of biomethane in Germany

Biomethane is a gaseous and biogenic energy carrier, chemically identical to natural gas. When used as natural gas substitute, it can contribute to significant GHG savings depending on substrate utilization, cross compliance and system operation. Being an important part of Germanys climate protection program the development of a national biomethane market was pushed by several incentives via energy and climate policies and led to a rapid growth in biomethane producing facilities. Recent adaptions of the installed support schemes no longer guarantee sufficient compensation for the production of renewable energy. A system dynamics model was developed to evaluate future policies on their environmental and economic efficiency. Market participants want to shift from biomethane use in combined heat and power plants to new markets. The model will be able to simulate future energy and climate policies, estimate their success in terms of sustainable capacity development to support policy makers for the development of efficient support schemes that incite a further sustainable and economic efficient biomethane market development.