Successfully legislating to stimulate the hydrogen economy in Europe will mean finding the right level of prescriptiveness in rules, according to panellists on a Hydrogen Economist roundtable, held in association with Air Liquide.

Setting a level playing field and allowing some competition will be the best way to allow technologies to develop, according to Allard Castelein, CEO of the Port of Rotterdam.

“You have to choose to support the right projects and to structure this next phase of of the European landscape” Rouge, Air Liquide

“I believe in target-setting regulation, ensuring a level playing field, and not being too prescriptive in either [application] use or technologies,” he says. “It would appear we can match demand with supply provided public enterprises like ports are prepared to invest up front in the infrastructure.”

The Port of Rotterdam is working with Dutch natural gas grid operator Gasunie to develop a pipeline that will form the backbone of a hydrogen infrastructure in the region.

Alongside infrastructure, technologies are developing fast, and maintaining a dialogue between industry and regulators is vital, according to Dominique Rouge, VP of sales and technology at Air Liquide.

“For sure, you do not want to be prescriptive, but you have also to make choices and you have to choose to support the right projects and to structure this next phase of  the European landscape,” he says. “There is value in terms of driving the cost down, in terms of sustainability and in terms of the CO₂ footprint.”

Demand and supply

Focusing on the demand side is important, according to Armin Schnettler, VP of new energy business at Germany’s Siemens Energy. “We need to create demand and then the rest will follow—even our production capabilities will be built up according to the demand we see in the markets,” he says. But some regulation is still going to be needed on the supply side, he adds.

“Governmental support on top of that is needed and required to cover the first of its kind of risk,” he says. “So create demand, help to tackle the first-of-its-kind risk, and the rest will follow.”

The idea that governments can only support green hydrogen infrastructure and leave the rest to the private sector will not allow the market to grow sufficiently rapidly, according to Thorsten Herdan, director general in the German energy ministry.

“There are ideas that they say we only support infrastructure with green hydrogen set in—this is nonsense,” he says, adding that specifying that offtakers only use 100pc green hydrogen will also impede the market. “That would be the death for everything."

The Hydrogen Economist roundtable, ‘Backing hydrogen’, held in association with Air Liquide, is now available on demand.

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Author: Tom Young