Northern Ireland’s proposed biomethane strategy moved into public consultation on 20th October 2026. The Department for the Economy and the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs want views on renewable gas, farm waste, nutrient management and the conditions needed for a viable industry. The main consultation closes at 5pm on 15th December.
There is also a separate, earlier deadline. A Department for the Economy request for information opened on 22nd October and closes on 19th November. It seeks commercial evidence for a potential industrial biomethane support scheme, rather than applications for an approved grant.
I would not mistake either consultation for planning permission or a confirmed grant offer. For farmers, anaerobic digestion operators, landowners and planning professionals, the distinction matters. The proposals could influence where future facilities are viable and how they connect to gas networks, but they neither grant planning permission nor commit ministers to building or subsidising specific projects.
What the biomethane strategy would change
Biomethane is a renewable gas made by treating organic material in an oxygen-free process called anaerobic digestion. The resulting biogas is cleaned to remove carbon dioxide and impurities. The upgraded gas can substitute for natural gas, including in some industrial heating processes.
The joint consultation document is unusually useful because it sets out preferred policy directions and asks specific questions, rather than simply inviting general support for renewable energy. It covers pricing support, network connection costs, gas standards, certification and the recovery of nutrients from digestion residues.
Northern Ireland already has more than 80 operating anaerobic digestion plants according to the departments. Most were established to produce electricity. Moving towards gas injection is not necessarily a minor adaptation: location, processing equipment, transport and the available gas network all influence what can be delivered.
The biomethane strategy favours a mixture of existing farm-scale facilities and larger shared processing centres where that makes practical and economic sense. In the proposed ‘hub and spoke’ approach, smaller sites could supply gas or digestate to a central facility for upgrading, nutrient recovery and network injection. The departments are consulting on that approach, not imposing it as a final requirement.
Possible funding is not yet approved
The funding proposals need particularly careful reading. The Department for the Economy is considering using residual Annually Managed Expenditure from the former non-domestic Renewable Heat Incentive. Its consultation refers to an indicative envelope of approximately £13 million a year and a possible subsidy linked to gas supplied for industrial heat.
That is a preferred position subject to a business case, necessary approvals and spending limits. It is not a confirmed pot of grants for farms or a guaranteed price for gas. Treasury has agreed that the residual funding could be considered in principle, not approved a finished support scheme.
On 22nd October, the department separately opened a business case request for information. It asks prospective producers and industrial users about supply, demand and project economics. A possible scheme is envisaged for 2028 to 2035, but the department states explicitly that participation does not guarantee funding.
I would treat those two exercises differently. A response to the biomethane strategy should address public policy and practical delivery barriers. A response to the business case should provide credible numbers, assumptions and evidence of potential demand or production capacity. The latter deadline is 19th November, nearly four weeks before the strategy consultation closes.
Planning permission and gas network connections
One of the most consequential ideas concerns who pays to strengthen the gas network. Under the current approach, the first producer seeking a connection can face the full cost of reinforcements that later producers may also use. The departments propose spreading the cost of essential strategic network reinforcements across gas consumers, subject to caps and safeguards. Producers would remain responsible for their own direct connections.
The consultation also considers harmonising permitted oxygen limits in transmission and distribution gas networks at 0.5% and, over the longer term, reducing reliance on propane blending where safe. Both are technical proposals. Neither should be reported as a change already in force simply because it appears in a policy paper.
The planning implications are equally real. Larger processing centres may need suitable sites, access for delivery vehicles, storage, drainage, odour management and appropriate treatment of adjoining land uses. Farms considering changes to existing installations will need to establish which permissions or environmental consents actually apply to their particular scheme.
Importantly, the consultation itself identifies planning delays and coordination across government as barriers. But the biomethane strategy does not confer a new blanket planning permission. Northern Ireland has its own planning framework, separate from the English permitted development regime. Our guide to planning in Northern Ireland explains the relevant decision-making system and why the English GPDO cannot simply be imported.
Nutrient controls will determine credibility
The environmental case is more complicated than turning agricultural waste into fuel. Anaerobic digestion leaves a nutrient-rich material called digestate. Unless the resulting nutrients are carefully accounted for, stored and used, increasing processing capacity could move a pollution problem around rather than solve it.
The consultation specifically links future development to catchment pressures, including Lough Neagh, and explores measurable nutrient recovery, traceable movements and credible end markets for recovered fertilisers. It does not claim that every new installation will automatically improve local water quality.
In the 20 October ministerial announcement, Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs Minister Andrew Muir said: “Public confidence will depend on the sector delivering positive environmental outcomes while avoiding unintended consequences.”
That is the practical test for the biomethane strategy. A business plan may show attractive energy production, but planners and environmental regulators will still need evidence about feedstock transport, water, digestate handling and the suitability of the site. Assertions of climate benefit cannot substitute for those assessments.
How to respond before the two deadlines
The main biomethane policy consultation accepts responses until 5pm on Tuesday 15th December 2026. It addresses the proposed strategy as a whole. The separate business case exercise closes on Thursday 19th November and is particularly relevant to businesses able to provide dependable supply or demand information.
For a farm or potential developer, useful evidence could include distances to the gas grid, feedstock availability, anticipated delivery movements, nutrient processing capacity, land constraints and which costs make a proposed location viable. Claims of environmental improvement are stronger when backed by measurable outputs and a plan for where materials will go.
The Department for the Economy also allows email or postal responses to the main exercise; its official consultation page supplies the instructions and documents. Organisations should identify whom they represent, and written responses should quote the consultation reference given by the department.
After consultation, ministers will analyse the representations before settling policy positions. The biomethane strategy has not been adopted. No new statutory development right, final industrial support scheme or construction approval arises automatically from this exercise. The interesting question is whether future policy can make renewable gas commercially workable without transferring disproportionate costs or nutrient impacts elsewhere.
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