Page 5 - AsiaElec Week 02
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AsiaElec COMMENTARY AsiaElec
producing hydrogen from renewable electricity could fall 30% by 2030.
The IRENA report goes further and predicts that green hydrogen could be competitive on cost with some fossil fuel project in about five years.
Power companies
Major power companies have taken an inter- est in developing hydrogen technology and are piloting hydrogen projects.
“Our vision of hydrogen is to store large quantities of renewables”, said Michèle Azal- bert, CEO of ENGIE’s business unit dedicated to renewable hydrogen.
Siemens, for example, is undertaking a joint green hydrogen pilot at the MBR Solar Park developed by Dubai utility Dew. This project aims to use solar energy to power the first green hydrogen electrolyser in the Middle East
“We target decentralised and large-scale application. It’s important to leave the pilot phase and scale up projects that are viable,” said Manuel Kuehn, Siemens Middle East senior vice-presi- dent for strategy and business development.
Asia
Both the IEA and the IRENA are calling for countries to establish a role for hydrogen in long- term energy strategies.
Japan and South Korea are two major indus- trial economies that have heavily talked up hydrogen in recent months. Both countries are keen to reduce their exposure to both fossil fuels and nuclear power in the coming decades.
“Hydrogen is very important for us”, said Yas- uhiro Matsuyama, director-general of the energy conservation and renewable energy depart- ment at Japan’s Ministry of Trade and Industry (METI).
“We want to make it a marketable tool for the future. For that we need infrastructure and pipe- lines. Furthermore, hydrogen can be a tradable energyofthefuture.”
Europe is also supportive. “Hydrogen is a key instrument for meeting the Green Deal objectives and Europe is leading on its industry development,” EU Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson said.
Clean and convenient
Hydrogen is being promoted as a clean, reason- ably convenient fuel source whose costs are set to fall rapidly with technological advancement.
What IRENA and the IEA are calling for is better multilateral and government support through suitable policy investment incentives, better infrastructure and more integrated energy markets that will allow green hydrogen to be used more as a fuel.
It offers specific advantages in industrial sectors that have high emissions records, such as steel, chemicals, power generation and trans- port. It could even developed into a tradable commodity,
With the production of hydrogen from fos- sil fuels accounting for 830mn tonnes per year (tpy) of CO2, according to IEA figures, a focus on green hydrogen could help the world reduce emissions and help meet climate change targets.
The IEA is leading the call for accelerated efforts by governments to promote green hydro- gen and to push forward the energy transition and decarbonisation.
Other issues that governments must address to reduce fossil fuel consumption include digitalisation, wider electrification and grid decentralisation.
Green hydrogen has a role to play and it is now up to countries to act.
Week 02 15 •January•2020 w w w. N E W S B A S E . c o m P5
