Europe Opens the Pipes for Biomethane’s Cross-Border Future

Denmark and France upgrade gas links under GREENCONNECT, aligning infrastructure and rules to unlock Europe’s biomethane ambitions

10 Feb 2026

Europe’s renewable gas sector is taking a small but meaningful step toward adulthood. Not another policy pledge, but something more tangible: pipes that actually connect supply with demand across borders.

A new partnership between gas network operators in Denmark and France is putting that idea into practice. Through an initiative called GREENCONNECT, Energinet and NaTran are adapting existing gas links so they can carry biomethane, a renewable fuel that has grown fast but rarely travels far.

The obstacle has never been a lack of interest. Biomethane production is rising, especially in farming regions. Buyers exist too. What stands in the way is infrastructure built for a different era. Europe’s gas networks were designed for one directional flows within national systems, not for renewable molecules crossing borders.

GREENCONNECT tackles that mismatch by upgrading interconnection points so gas can flow both ways between Denmark and France. These changes will not suddenly create a bustling biomethane exchange. They do something quieter but essential. They remove a physical bottleneck so future contracts and market rules have somewhere to operate.

The timing matters. The EU’s RePowerEU plan calls for roughly 35 billion cubic meters of biomethane each year by 2030. Without more flexible infrastructure, that target risks becoming a paper ambition, with production trapped by geography.

Energinet has described the project as a test case. Can biomethane grow beyond a local climate solution and function as a Europe wide energy source? That requires networks that respond to demand instead of stopping at borders.

The work is not just about steel and valves. Different gas quality standards and operating rules have long slowed cross border flows. Under GREENCONNECT, the two operators are aligning practices and sharing technical know how to reduce friction when renewable gas moves between systems.

Political support followed in 2023, when the European Commission awarded the project Project of Common Interest status. That designation speeds permitting and unlocks EU funding, a clear signal that Brussels wants physical progress, not just strategy documents.

Large scale biomethane trade remains unfinished business. Still, by pairing infrastructure upgrades with regulatory coordination, GREENCONNECT offers a glimpse of a market that finally behaves like one.