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the race towards a lighter-than-air economy

AN ITM ELECTROLYSER

would use existing natural gas pipelines and investments of up to €65 billion Other governments have also
that have been converted to transporting will be needed for hydrogen transport, announced their own hydrogen
hydrogen, the remainder would require distribution and storage and hydrogen roadmaps. For South Korea, the
new stretches of pipeline. refuelling stations. environmental advantages of hydrogen
The report estimates that this if The report also calls for an enabling are complemented by a desire for
this network was created, transport regulatory framework (requiring energy security and support for its
of hydrogen would account for only a legislation at both a national and export economy. The government is
small part of total hydrogen costs for European level) plus sustained research heavily subsidising fuel cell deployment
end users with an estimated levelised into breakthrough technologies and to reach its target of obtaining 11 per
cost of between €0.09–0.17 per kg of a large-scale infrastructure network. cent of the nation’s primary energy
hydrogen per 1000km² compared with It envisages establishing a series of from ‘new’ (which includes fuel cells)
future production costs of €1–2/kg for hydrogen clusters that will become and renewable sources by 2035.
green and blue hydrogen. increasingly interconnected. It hopes this investment will also
The report notes that the capital cost create a national fuel cell industry
of a newly-built dedicated hydrogen worth US$98 billion, employ 175,000
pipeline is likely to be 10–50 per The report notes that the people by 2040 and support Hyundai,
cent more expensive than its natural capital cost of a newly built which launched its first fuel cell car
gas counterparts and that existing dedicated hydrogen pipeline is last year. In the US, while the Trump
natural gas pipelines need relatively administration was overtly hostile to
little modification to transport pure likely to be 10–50 per cent more investment in green energy and US
hydrogen, such that the capital cost expensive than its natural gas government-backed R&D funding of
of repurposing existing pipelines is counterparts and that existing hydrogen has halved in the last decade,
likely to be 10–25 that of building natural gas pipelines need individual states, primarily California,
new dedicated hydrogen pipelines. have adopted more favourable policies
Hydrogen’s low density also makes relatively little modification to and President Biden has a much
it expensive to store. BNEF estimates transport pure hydrogen more positive stance on renewable
that for hydrogen to displace natural energy. The UK has yet to announce
gas entirely would require three to four a co-ordinated plan for hydrogen
times the existing storage infrastructure The immediate (Phase 1, 2020–2024) but is supporting investment in the
at a cost of over $600 billion. While focus of legislation will be technology technology. Construction of ITM
hydrogen can be compressed, the costs funding. This will be provided Power’s 1GW recently completed
of this can exceed production costs and through bodies such as the InvestEU electrolyser factory, which is the world’s
the availability of geological storage programme and the ETS Innovation largest, was partially funded by grants
options such as salt caverns, which are Fund and will be directed by bodies from the EU and InnovateUK.
cheaper, is limited by geography. such as the European Clean Hydrogen
Alliance which includes companies Edison is an investment research,
HYDROGEN’S PLACE IN THE MARKET 2G Energy, Ballard, ENGIE EPS, investor relations and consulting firm,
The EU hydrogen roadmap sets out FuelCell Energy, McPhy, Nel Hydrogen, with offices in North America, Europe,
how it intends to stimulate the market. PowerCell and Proton Motor Fuel the Middle East and Asia Pacific. The
It estimates that between 2020 and Cell. The subsequent focus will be the full report, Hydrogen - rising fast in the
2030 investment in electrolysers could creation of a framework for an open and global energy mix can be found at www.
range from €24 billion to €42 billion competitive hydrogen market. edisongroup.com

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