The European Commission will consider hydrogen produced from nuclear power as \u201clow-carbon\u201d, said a senior EU official who spoke in the European Parliament on Monday (16 November).<\/p>\n
\u201cElectrolysis can be powered by renewable electricity, which would then be classified as renewable hydrogen,\u201d said Paula Abreu Marques, head of unit for renewables and CCS policy at the European Commission\u2019s energy directorate.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you have electrolysers connected to nuclear power stations, this would be classified as low carbon hydrogen,\u201d Marques told lawmakers in the European Parliament\u2019s committee on environment, public health and food safety.<\/p>\n
The European Commission\u2019s clarification appeared necessary. Nuclear power is indeed not mentioned in the EU\u2019s hydrogen strategy, which the EU executive presented in July this year.<\/p>\n
Using nuclear power for hydrogen production is known as \u201cpurple hydrogen\u201d and offers the benefit of low-carbon emissions compared to the sort produced from natural gas \u2013 or grey hydrogen \u2013 which is currently the most widely available.<\/p>\n
When the Commission unveiled its hydrogen strategy earlier this year, it introduced the concept of \u201cclean hydrogen\u201d in reference to manufacturing processes using renewable electricity, which is the EU\u2019s clear priority.<\/p>\n
\u201cLow-carbon hydrogen\u201d, it added, \u201cencompasses fossil-based hydrogen with carbon capture\u201d and \u201celectricity-based hydrogen\u201d with low-carbon life cycles.<\/p>\n
It did not, however, mention nuclear power among those low-carbon electricity sources.
\nBrussels ‘won\u2019t stand in the way’ of new nuclear plants, says EU climate chief<\/p>\n
The European Commission \u201cwill not stand in the way\u201d of countries that choose to build new nuclear power stations, said EU climate chief Frans Timmermans, who warned however about the life-cycle costs of the technology, \u201cwhich means that you will be stuck with it for a long, long, long time\u201d.<\/p>\n
Hydrogen is seen as a way to decarbonise heavy industries like chemicals and steelmaking, or long-haul transport, like aviation and shipping. However, the processes to produce it are highly energy intensive and inefficient.<\/p>\n
Currently, around 95% of hydrogen is produced using natural gas. 10kg of CO2 are emitted to produce 1kg of hydrogen according to French utility EDF, and plans to use carbon capture and storage to reduce emissions are still in development.<\/p>\n
In its new \u20ac7bn national hydrogen strategy, France has said it will use \u201clow-carbon\u201d sources, allowing nuclear to be used as a source of power for electrolysis. Germany, however, has said it will produce \u201cgreen\u201d hydrogen obtained from renewables such as offshore wind.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m surprised that hydrogen from nuclear energy is not mentioned [in the strategy],\u201d said French MEP Jo\u00eblle M\u00e9lin, a lawmaker from the far-right Identity and Democracy group in the European Parliament. \u201cRenewables won\u2019t be enough. I think that we need to go further in defining clean hydrogen,\u201d she told fellow MEPs in the environment committee.<\/p>\n
Research into nuclear power for hydrogen production has gained momentum recently. In January, French energy utility EDF said it was looking at plans for producing hydrogen from UK nuclear power plants, with a consortium led by the group saying this would meet a significant proportion of the country\u2019s projected energy needs.<\/p>\n
EDF is also running a subsidiary, called Hynamics, using nuclear power from its 58 units, combined with some renewables, to produce hydrogen. Hynamics has identified 40 projects across the UK and Europe for this.<\/p>\n
In the United States, the government set up the Nuclear Hydrogen Initiative as far back as 2003, detailing how nuclear plants could become hybrid energy systems by adding hydrogen as a second revenue stream.<\/p>\n
In the same vein, the European Commission wants hydrogen to be complimentary to a renewables-based energy system with renewable electricity at its core, Marques said.<\/p>\n
By 2050, the Commission estimates renewable hydrogen could meet 24% of the world\u2019s energy needs. The Commission aims to support the installation of at least 6GW of renewable hydrogen electrolysers to produce up to one million tonnes and wants that to rise to 40GW by 2030 and be deployed on a large scale by 2050.
\nEU Commission charts path towards 100% renewable hydrogen<\/p>\n
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 shouldn\u2019t reverse emission reductions<\/p>\n
How clean hydrogen is depends on the energy source used to produce it. During the debate in the Parliament\u2019s environment committee, Green MEPs clearly backed renewable hydrogen over the natural gas sort which is currently the most widely used.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a lot of work to do to make sure that we don\u2019t shoot ourselves in the foot with our own strategy and we cannot let it become a greenwashing exercise that will lock us into a further dependence on fossil fuels,\u201d said P\u00e4r Holmgren, a Swedish MEP from the Green Party.<\/p>\n
Hildegard Bentele, a German Christian Democrat lawmaker who is the Parliament\u2019s rapporteur on the EU\u2019s hydrogen strategy, backed hydrogen, saying it offers the promise of a more a sustainable energy system.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to use the possibilities of hydrogen as soon as possible in order to facilitate us on this path towards climate neutrality,\u201d she said, warning however that it will take time to ramp up production and put in place financing mechanisms to speed up the process.<\/p>\n
Tiemo W\u00f6lken, a German MEP for the socialists and democrats (S&D), added that he was sceptical of carbon capture and storage processes and said that if nuclear energy or coal were used to produce hydrogen, it would not be a good alternative to current energy usage.<\/p>\n
On the other side of the debate, Alexandr Vondra, a Czech conservative MEP (ECR), supported ramping up hydrogen production immediately using natural gas.<\/p>\n
\u201cUsing hydrogen made from natural gas may have important benefits. It may be produced locally, thus avoiding the environmental and financial cost of transporting. It may help with the just transition as you may employ the same people who work for fossil fuel companies,\u201d Vondra said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The European Commission will consider hydrogen produced from nuclear power as \u201clow-carbon\u201d, said a senior EU official who spoke in the European Parliament on Monday (16 November). \u201cElectrolysis can be powered by renewable electricity, which would then be classified as renewable hydrogen,\u201d said Paula Abreu Marques, head of unit for renewables and CCS policy at […]<\/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":[12296,10630],"supplier":[2317,4514,5585],"class_list":["post-82133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-co2-based","tag-ccs","tag-hydrogen","supplier-european-commission","supplier-european-parliament","supplier-european-union"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82133","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=82133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82133\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82133"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=82133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}