Prime Minister’s energy plan ignores the cheapest fix on the table

Prime Minister’s energy plan ignores the cheapest fix on the table

29 September 2026  – London – The PM’s plan to bring energy prices into line with Europe will fall short because it ignores the lessons that Europe has learned. It overlooks the one homegrown energy source that can cut costs in the transition to net zero: green gas.

Today’s announcement of the creation of Great British Grid focuses entirely on building and connecting new electricity infrastructure. Yet the Anaerobic Digestion & Bioresources Association (ADBA)’s 2024 report, The Role of Green Gas in Net Zero: Cutting the Cost of Keeping the Lights On, found that greater use of British biomethane could cut the cost of net zero by £298 billion to 2050, equivalent to £415 a year for every household.  

The analysis used the same energy system assumptions as Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) and National Energy System Operator (NESO) and identified savings in electricity transmission investment because biomethane travels through the gas network the country already owns.  

The National Audit Office (NAO) have found that the UK’s electricity transmission network needs to be upgraded with an estimated cost of £70bn and that many hold ups to the upgrades are not down to a lack of funding or competition, but a lack of skilled workers and supply chain constraints meaning that orders placed today will not be delivered until 2029 at the earliest. 

By backing British biomethane production with uncommitted money from Great British Energy’s existing funding, an additional 10TWh of energy could be online by 2030 – energy which can be used to heat British homes, power the reindustrialisation of the UK, and insulating us against international energy spikes – especially by reducing our reliance on LNG imports from the USA. It does this all while decarbonising, contributing to carbon removals, and supporting British farmers and the rural economy. 

Best of all, this gas will be transported through existing infrastructure, already under our roads and fields transporting and storing energy for years to come.

Chris Huhne, Chair of ADBA, said: 

“The Prime Minister says the energy market is broken, and he’s right. But his answer is to pour more money into wires while overlooking a British fuel that can cut the cost of net zero by £415 a year for every household through pipes already under our feet. 

France has some of the cheapest electricity in Europe and yet is growing its green gas sector faster than anywhere else because Paris understands the value of a storable, reliable and ready renewable fuel. Green gas can keep the lights on during long winter nights when there is no sun and little wind. 

Biomethane is made here from our own waste, runs through pipes we have already paid for, and protects families from the imported gas shocks driving up their bills.  

Building grid is necessary, but it is slow and expensive. Green gas is ready now. A government serious about closing the gap with Europe cannot keep leaving it out of the plan.” 

-ENDS-

For further information, contact:

Cameron Ball, External Affairs Lead, ADBA
e: cameron.ball@adbioresources.org; tel: +44 7964 663710

Notes to editors

• The Role of Green Gas in Net Zero: Cutting the Cost of Keeping the Lights On was published by ADBA in December 2024 and produced with Business Modelling Applications (BMA) using its Decisio whole energy system model, which draws on the modelling used by DESNZ and NESO. It compared NESO’s 2024 Pathways to Net Zero with a scenario in which green gas replaces costlier parts of the transition, finding savings of £298 billion to 2050, equivalent to £415 per household per year. The £298 billion figure is a net present value using a 2% real discount rate.
• The savings from grid upgrades come from reducing constraint payments made through the balancing market to renewable generators to switch off when the grid is congested. Grid investment does not address intermittency or the need for interseasonal energy storage, which are challenges common to energy systems across the northern hemisphere, where demand peaks in winter when solar output is lowest and wind can fall away for days at a time.
• Green gas is the only renewable energy source that can meet these needs at scale. Biomethane can be stored in the existing gas network and dispatched on demand, providing firm, flexible energy through winter peaks and periods of low wind.

About ADBA

The Anaerobic Digestion and Bioresources Association (ADBA) is the industry association for the UK anaerobic digestion (AD) and biogas industry. ADBA’s vision is to see the full potential of the UK green gas industry realised so it can help the UK achieve its emissions targets and other policy goals, creating a truly circular economy. www.adbioresources.org

About the AD industry 

• There are currently over 750 AD plants operational across the UK
• The entire industry digests approximately 36 million tonnes of organic material each year – organic material that would otherwise emit greenhouse gases including highly potent methane, if left untreated in landfill.
• An estimated 21TWh of biogas is produced each year by the AD industry – this green gas is either used to generate electricity and heat via a combined heat and power (CHP) unit or upgraded to biomethane and injected directly into the national gas grid.
• The industry currently delivers savings of 1% off the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions every year.
• An estimated 4,800 people are currently employed in the AD and biogas industry in the UK.
• Overall, the industry grew by 5 per cent last year as the closure of older, smaller plants was outweighed by big-scale units feeding into the gas grid.
• Fully deployed, by 2050, the UK AD and biogas industry is expected to:
  • produce over 100TWh of biomethane
  • provide between 20% and 50% of UK gas demand
  • create 60,000 jobs (30,000 direct and 30,000 indirect).
  • save the UK 27 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent – equivalent to taking 1/3rd of all cars off the road
  • heat 6.8 million UK homes with the 8 billion m3 of biomethane generated

How AD works

Anaerobic digestion (AD) is the natural breakdown of organic matter in the absence of oxygen in a container called a digester. The process extracts the energy this material contains in the form of biogas leaving the remaining organic matter called digestate – a stable, nutrient-rich substance used as a biofertiliser which restores soil health. Organic wastes typically treated through AD include food waste, animal manures and slurries, other agri-wastes, food & drink processing wastes, sewage sludge.