Forget Russia & Qatar: Europe has a New Gas Source (spoiler: it's wastewater biogas)
(don't) Waste Water! | Water Tech to Solve the World

Forget Russia & Qatar: Europe has a New Gas Source (spoiler: it's wastewater biogas)

B2Upper-intermediateMarch 27, 202626 min
  • One speaker

Can Europe's Sewage Plants Replace Russian Gas? (aka: the €1.9 Billion Biomethane Opportunity) Europe's wastewater treatment plants are sitting on a massive untapped energy reserve. With the right upgrades, roughly 1,900 facilities across Europe could produce 13.4 billion cubic meters of biomethane per year — matching Russia's remaining pipeline gas deliveries in 2024. Let me break down the economics, the technology, and the investment landscape driving this shift. 🌶️ KEY SPICES 🌶️ ⛽ One oil price spike dropped profitable plant thresholds by 15-47% and made ~600 additional facilities viable for biomethane grid injection overnight 📊 Only 30% of cost-co...

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B2 · Upper-intermediate

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0:00

If you hit your home in Europe, three weeks ago you felt something that's becoming a familiar pattern. Iranian strikes damaged Ras Lafan, which is the world's largest LNG export facility, and that knocked out roughly 17% of Qatar's gas export capacity, potentially even for five

0:17

years. TTF, which if you're not in the energy world is essentially the S&P 500 for natural gas in Europe hits 60 euros per megawatt hour. And as tough luck hits repeatedly, the European gas storage was sitting below 30%.

0:34

Actually the lowest seasonal level in years, so prices jumped 60% in 3 weeks. Now we shouldn't be that surprised because this keeps happening. Europe had to cut most of its Russian gas dependency because of the Ukrainian war, with about 13 billion cubic meters still tricking through in 2024.

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