TEN-T Funding Supports LNG for Transport Policy Development in Portugal
The EU’s TEN-T Programme will back with over €150,000 (USD 170k) the national policy development for the use of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in Portuguese road transport. The initiative is part of a larger project aiming to develop an integrated energy action plan for fuel diversification in the transport sector.
LNG, a greener and cheaper alternative to conventional fuel, could help reduce the emissions of freight trucks on the main European highways. The initiative will set out a national policy framework to accelerate the uptake of LNG as an alternative fuel for freight transport in Portugal.
The project has the support of stakeholders from the public sector, energy suppliers, automotive manufacturers, freight transport companies, as well as organisations strongly involved in important LNG projects. It focuses on four specific objectives:
- Assessing the uptake potential of LNG in freight operations along the Portugal/Spain – rest of Europe axis;
- Defining the national needs for a comprehensive regulatory framework that, among others, ensures the conformity of national LNG infrastructure with the technical specifications and infrastructure coverage targets by 2020 set by the above-mentioned Directive;
- Outlining the expected impact and analysing the cost-benefit of several policy options, taking into account the ex-ante analysis of socio economic and environmental impacts, in order to support the conclusions of the study; and
- Defining the most appropriate national roadmap to facilitate the deployment of LNG technology combined with other alternative technologies, to ensure in particular that LNG heavy duty vehicles can travel all along the Portugal/Spain – rest of Europe TEN-T road axis.
The project was selected for EU funding with the assistance of external experts under the TEN-T Annual Call 2013, priority ‘Decarbonisation / oil substitution or environmental cost reduction’. Its implementation will be monitored by INEA, the European Commission’s Innovation and Networks Executive Agency.
