Gas Paves the Way for European Energy Savings

Switching from coal to gas power could save European nations 450bn euros ($596bn; £377bn) in the next two decades and cut carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, a group of gas firms says.

European coal-fired power stations emit 70% more CO2 than modern gas plants, the European Gas Advocacy Forum said.

Gradually replacing coal power stations with gas could help Europe cut CO2 emissions by 80% by 2050, it said.

But sceptics say renewable energy rather than gas is the way forward.

The European Gas Advocacy Forum, which is made up of eight gas companies - Centrica, ENI, E.On Ruhrgas, Gazprom Export, GDF Suez, Qatar Petroleum, Royal Dutch Shell and Statoil - would like to see coal's share of the energy mix fall from 24% currently to between 4% and 9% by 2030.

During this period, power stations using gas, biomass, other renewable energy sources and nuclear energy would produce more to fill the void, the group said in a joint position paper presented to the European Commission on Friday.

The gas companies insist gas should fill most of the void during the initial two decades as this would be the quickest and cheapest solution.

"The reason why it is cheap is that gas power requires lower investments than coal and nuclear power plants," said the head of Statoil's gas division, Rune Bjornson.

"It offers a shorter lead time and there are no technological challenges."

Many are sceptical to increasing the use of gas due to the security of supply.

Such concerns are largely based on a perception that Europe could become dependent on supplies from Russia's Gazprom in particular, a scenario widely deemed undesirable following its rows with Ukraine in recent years.

Such concerns are overdone, said Mr Bjornson, insisting that global estimates point to more than 250 years of economically recoverable natural gas resources at current consumption levels.

"Availability of gas and the number of supply sources have never been better than they are today," he said.

Dr Robert Gross, director at the Centre for Energy Policy and Technology, accepts that. "There is more of it than we thought there was," he said.

"We currently have a surplus of energy globally, because the Americans built a load of energy capacity and then found all this shale gas."

Gross added, "Need we really be as fearful of reliance on countries that we feel nervous about?"

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