The European Commission unveiled plans on Wednesday (8 July) to promote hydrogen based entirely on renewable electricity like wind and solar, but said low-carbon hydrogen derived from fossil fuels will also be supported in order to scale up production in the short term.<\/p>\n
Hydrogen is seen as a potential silver bullet to decarbonise hard-to-abate industrial sectors like steel and chemicals, which currently rely on fossil fuels and cannot easily switch to electricity. It is also seen as a long-term solution for shipping, aviation and heavy-duty road transport where electrification is not feasible at the moment.<\/p>\n
\u201cHydrogen is a vital missing piece of the puzzle to help us reach this deeper decarbonisation,\u201d said Kadri Simson, the EU\u2019s energy commissioner who presented the strategy on Wednesday (8 July).<\/p>\n
By 2050, the EU executive estimates that clean hydrogen could meet 24% of the world\u2019s energy demand, with annual sales in the range of \u20ac630 billion. For Europe, that could translate into 1 million jobs in the hydrogen value chain.<\/p>\n
But getting there will take time. Today, 96% of hydrogen today comes from fossil fuels, the Commission points out, saying: \u201cThe priority is to develop renewable hydrogen, produced using mainly wind and solar energy\u201d.<\/p>\n
That will require further cost reductions in technologies such as electrolysers, which aren\u2019t expected to be fully mature until 2030 at the earliest, the Commission said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Therefore, in the meantime, \u201cother forms of low-carbon hydrogen are needed to rapidly reduce emissions and support the development of a viable market,\u201d the Commission added, referring to carbon capture and storage (CCS) as well as hydrogen obtained from gas pyrolysis, which generates carbon in solid form instead of CO2.<\/p>\n
The good news is that Europe is at the forefront of all these technologies, the Commission said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe new hydrogen economy can be a growth engine to help overcome the economic damage caused by COVID-19,\u201d said Frans Timmermans, the Commission executive vice-president in charge of the Green Deal.\u00a0 \u201cIn developing and deploying a clean hydrogen value chain, Europe will become a global frontrunner and retain its leadership in clean tech,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
In order to scale up production, the Commission said it will follow \u201ca phased approach\u201d:<\/p>\n
From 2020 to 2024, the Commission\u2019s objective is to support the installation of at least 6 gigawatts\u00a0of renewable hydrogen electrolysers in the EU, in order to produce up to\u00a01 million tonnes\u00a0of renewable hydrogen.
\nFrom 2025 to 2030, hydrogen needs to become an intrinsic part of Europe\u2019s integrated energy system, the Commission says, with at least 40 gigawatts\u00a0of renewable hydrogen electrolysers and the production of up to\u00a010 million tonnes of renewable hydrogen\u00a0in the EU.
\nFrom 2030 to 2050, the aim is for renewable hydrogen technologies to reach maturity and be deployed at\u00a0large scale\u00a0across all hard-to-decarbonise sectors, such as chemicals and steelmaking.
\nTo support Europe\u2019s nascent renewable hydrogen industry, the Commission also set European Clean Hydrogen Alliance\u00a0that will bring together industry leaders, national and regional ministers as well as civil society to \u201cbuild up an investment pipeline for scaled-up production\u201d and support demand for clean hydrogen in the EU.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Alliance is strategically important for our Green Deal ambitions and the resilience of our industry,\u201d said Thierry Breton, the EU\u2019s internal market commissioner in charge of the alliance.
\nLEAK: ‘European Clean Hydrogen Alliance’ ready for take-off
\nThe European Commission will seek to position Europe as a global leader on hydrogen with a new industry-led alliance set to be unveiled on Wednesday (8 July).<\/p>\n
Chemicals and steelmaking<\/p>\n
Most hydrogen in Europe today is generated and consumed by the chemicals industry, which sees it as \u201ca viable option\u201d to reduce CO2 emissions further in the future.<\/p>\n
\u201cHydrogen can become an important low-carbon building block for the chemical industry\u2019s production processes,\u201d said Marco Mensink, director general at CEFIC, the EU chemical industry association.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs one of the largest producers and consumers of hydrogen in Europe, it is a vital first step to see that these new strategies place the chemical sector at the heart of Europe\u2019s future hydrogen economy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Steelmaking is another key industrial sector which is expected to benefit from the widespread availability of clean hydrogen. For those sectors, the Commission intends to promote so-called carbon contracts for difference (\u2018CCfD\u2019) that would remunerate investors by paying the difference between the CO2 strike price and the actual CO2 price on the EU carbon market.<\/p>\n
Transition period<\/p>\n
The difficult part will be to deal with the transition period until 2030 and avoid a lock-in effect into carbon-emitting sources of hydrogen.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course there will be funding for CCS and pyrolysis technology,\u201d said a senior Commission source who briefed the press on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut we do not see this as a lock-in because the development of renewable hydrogen is a process that will take a while,\u201d the official added, saying those investments have a lifecycle of around 25 years which could therefore be amortised by the time green hydrogen becomes competitive.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the transition period, we\u2019re not going for fossil-based hydrogen,\u201d the official insisted, effectively ruling out EU support for so-called \u201cgrey\u201d hydrogen produced from steam methane reforming without CCS.<\/p>\n
\u201cTherefore, it is low-carbon hydrogen that we are using in the transitional period,\u201d the official added.<\/p>\n
This is why the carbon capture and storage will be essential in the transition period, said another senior Commission official. \u201cWe need the carbon capture solutions in order to quickly decarbonise as much as possible the existing production while scaling up renewable hydrogen production at the same time,\u201d the source explained.<\/p>\n
Russia has shown interest in developing pyrolysis technology, seeing it as a way to decarbonise its natural gas exports to Europe.
\nGerman industry talks up \u2018carbon-free\u2019 hydrogen from fossil gas
\nHydrogen production from natural gas can be made almost entirely carbon-free using a technique called pyrolysis, say German industry executives who have called on the European Union to support the technology\u2019s development on a commercial scale.<\/p>\n
\u2018The right plan at the right time\u2019<\/p>\n
Transport and Environment (T&E), a green campaign group, hailed the Commission\u2019s hydrogen strategy, saying it was \u201cthe right plan at the right time\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cHydrogen is the missing link in Europe\u2019s strategy to decarbonise planes and ships where electrification is not an option,\u201d said William Todts, executive director at T&E. \u201cNow the EU needs to create laws that force airlines and shipping companies to start using zero-emission fuels including hydrogen, ammonia and synthetic kerosene,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
T&E particularly welcomed the focus on zero-emissions trucking in the strategy, saying the Commission rightly identifies hydrogen and electrification as key technologies to achieve clean road freight.<\/p>\n
However, Todts expressed doubts as to the Commission\u2019s strategy of promoting low-carbon hydrogen with CCS in the transition period. \u201cHydrogen is only as clean as the energy used to produce it, and relying on fossil gas just delays the decarbonisation of the economy which the EU has committed to,\u201d Todts said.<\/p>\n
According to the European Environmental Bureau (EEB), a green campaign group, the Commission\u2019s hydrogen strategy is simply \u201ca gift to fossil fuel companies\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cInvesting in fossil-based hydrogen, whose production is already available at industrial scale, risks making truly clean and fossil-free hydrogen uncompetitive for the EU market and creating stranded assets. It\u2019s a costly gamble that Europe cannot afford and could easily avoid,\u201d said Barbara Mariani, senior policy officer for climate and energy at the EEB.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The European Commission unveiled plans on Wednesday (8 July) to promote hydrogen based entirely on renewable electricity like wind and solar, but said low-carbon hydrogen derived from fossil fuels will also be supported in order to scale up production in the short term. Hydrogen is seen as a potential silver bullet to decarbonise hard-to-abate industrial […]<\/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":[10630,12680,10563],"supplier":[2317],"class_list":["post-76815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-co2-based","tag-hydrogen","tag-industry","tag-renewable","supplier-european-commission"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76815","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=76815"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76815\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76815"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=76815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}