The European Commission aims to promote so-called \u201cgreen\u201d hydrogen produced from renewable electricity over the \u201cgrey\u201d sort obtained from natural gas steam reforming, according to a leaked policy document obtained by EURACTIV.<\/p>\n
Editor\u2019s note: Since publication of this article, EURACTIV obtained a more recent version of the EU\u2019s draft hydrogen strategy. Read our related article with a link to the full document\u00a0here.<\/p>\n
The Commission has made hydrogen \u201ca central element\u201d of plans to decarbonise industry, announcing it will launch a \u201cClean Hydrogen Alliance\u201d after the summer break in a bid to build a full supply chain in Europe.<\/p>\n
Germany, which takes over the EU\u2019s rotating presidency in July, has taken the lead on the issue, outlining a \u20ac7 billion plan earlier this month to promote \u201cgreen\u201d hydrogen at gigawatt scale.<\/p>\n
\u201cHydrogen is one of the enablers in the context of the Green Deal for decarbonising sectors like chemical industry, steel industry and transport,\u201d the Commission document states, listing the industrial sectors where future demand for hydrogen is expected to be highest.<\/p>\n
Now, the EU executive intends to spell out what is meant by \u201cclean hydrogen\u201d and put together a \u201cstrategic outlook\u201d for the development of \u201ca hydrogen economy in Europe,\u201d according to the title of the draft strategy.<\/p>\n
Priority to green H2<\/p>\n
The European Commission declined to comment on the leaked document, saying it was still subject to change. And the version obtained by EURACTIV appears to be at a relatively early stage, with numerous bullet points and incomplete sentences.<\/p>\n
Still, the document is outspoken about the key objectives of the strategy, which aren\u2019t expected to change radically in the final version, expected on 8 July.<\/p>\n
From the outset, it says the EU\u2019s \u201cclear priority\u201d is to develop green hydrogen \u201cas soon as possible\u201d in order to advance the bloc\u2019s long-term decarbonisation agenda.<\/p>\n
And while the EU executive seems ready to accept that \u201cblue\u201d hydrogen \u2013 obtained from natural gas with carbon capture and storage \u2013 \u201cwill play a role in the transition\u201d to a fully renewables-based hydrogen economy, it is categorical in rejecting the \u201cgrey\u201d sort produced from fossil gas.<\/p>\n
The hydrogen strategy will be presented on 8 July, alongside a related initiative to integrate the various components of the energy system where hydrogen is also expected to play a key role, a Commission spokesperson told EURACTIV.<\/p>\n
Bringing down costs<\/p>\n
The key question, the document adds, is \u201cwhen green hydrogen will become price competitive\u201d in comparison to the fossil fuel sort, which currently dominates global supply.<\/p>\n
EU policy initiatives \u201cwould aim at enabling green hydrogen to arrive at close to competitive price levels already in a couple of years,\u201d it says, adding: \u201cThis will be possible as soon as integrated green hydrogen factories at gigawatt scale go into production\u201d.<\/p>\n
The aim, according to the draft document, is to significantly scale up production of green hydrogen in order to bring down the price to a range of \u20ac1-2 per kilo.<\/p>\n
Simultaneously, measures to boost demand would be adopted in targeted sectors such as aviation, shipping, trains and heavy-duty transport, as well as industry: fertiliser, steel, chemicals, and cement.<\/p>\n
Subsidies<\/p>\n
However, critics say the Commission\u2019s draft strategy fails to address the fundamental economics of green hydrogen because it doesn\u2019t take into account the falling price of electricity.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is one aspect wholly absent from the communication: the recognition that more renewables into the electricity system depresses prices,\u201d said Mike Parr from PWR Consultants, a market research and consulting firm.<\/p>\n
In all major European electricity markets \u2013 including Germany, France and Spain \u2013 the rise of cheap wind and solar power has pushed down wholesale electricity prices to the point where they are now below the levelised cost of electricity (LCOE) for renewables, Parr explained.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd thus we move back into subsidy land,\u201d Parr told EURACTIV. \u201cThis is not good if the aim is a massive build-out of renewables that, for the most part, does not need a subsidy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Others were more upbeat, saying the draft strategy \u201cis on the right track\u201d by prioritising renewables and building on the German and Dutch hydrogen strategies.<\/p>\n
The Commission document \u201cis asking all of the right questions,\u201d said Andreas Graf from AgoraEnergiewende, a German think-tank specialised in research on the energy transition.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt gives me hope that establishing clean hydrogen industrial leadership will become a genuinely European project in service of the Green Deal,\u201d he told EURACTIV.<\/p>\n
But there is \u201cstill a long way to go\u201d before concrete legislative proposals are put on the table in June next year, he cautioned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The European Commission aims to promote so-called \u201cgreen\u201d hydrogen produced from renewable electricity over the \u201cgrey\u201d sort obtained from natural gas steam reforming, according to a leaked policy document obtained by EURACTIV. Editor\u2019s note: Since publication of this article, EURACTIV obtained a more recent version of the EU\u2019s draft hydrogen strategy. Read our related article […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","nova_meta_subtitle":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5571],"tags":[12330,10630],"supplier":[2317],"class_list":["post-76176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-co2-based","tag-ccu","tag-hydrogen","supplier-european-commission"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76176"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76176\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76176"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=76176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}