Market Challenge - High capital investment requirement

One of the major challenges for the global renewable natural gas market is the need for high capital investment for setting up production facilities for renewable natural gas. Producing renewable natural gas from sources such as organic waste requires setting up digesters, storage tanks, pipelines, and other processing units. This level of infrastructure development requires huge initial capital that is a huge burden for companies and project developers. The high capital costs make renewable gas projects difficult to be financially viable. Raising capital from investors also becomes challenging given the long payback periods of such projects. The high capital expenditure poses entry barriers for new players and restricts the growth of production capacity additions in this renewable energy market. Unless mechanisms are developed to reduce capital costs through subsidies and incentives, or novel financing solutions are explored, high capital requirements will continue to hamper the large-scale development of the renewable natural gas industry globally.

Market Opportunity - Partnerships with Waste and Agriculture Industries

One of the key opportunities for the global renewable natural gas market lies in partnering with related waste and agriculture industries. Agricultural waste and organic municipal solid waste are prime sources of feedstock that can be used for producing renewable natural gas through anaerobic digestion. By tying up with companies and local bodies in charge of waste management, renewable gas developers can get assured supply of low-cost feedstock. Similarly, partnerships with farmers and agricultural cooperatives provide opportunities to tap waste from livestock and crop residues. Such strategic partnerships help renewable gas projects address one of the important challenges of securing sustainable feedstock supply. This also fosters synergies between different industries. When waste producers are also shareholders in gas projects, it leads to ‘circular economy’ with mutual economic and environmental benefits. Such collaborative models have potential to significantly boost renewable gas production volumes globally.