The EU’s new Clean Hydrogen Partnership will be vital to reach a targeted hydrogen production cost of €1.8/kg ($2/kg), according to the body’s chair.

That goal was set by the EU last year as part of its hydrogen strategy, which also aims to install 6GW of electrolyser capacity by 2024 and 40GW by 2030, as well as to produce 10mn t of green hydrogen by the latter date.

The European Commission last month launched the partnership—a joint initiative with knowledge-sharing forum the Clean Hydrogen Alliance that will expand the work of the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking (FCH JU), a public-private partnership—to accelerate the development and deployment of a European value chain for clean hydrogen technologies.

€1.8/kg – EU’s targeted green hydrogen production cost

The larger budget and remit of the Clean Hydrogen Partnership reflects the increasing importance of hydrogen in meeting the EU’s emissions reduction targets.

“Hydrogen will play a central role in allowing Europe to reduce its emissions,” says Jean-Eric Paquet, director general of research and innovation at the Commission.

The FCH JU has funded 285 research and demonstration projects since being established in 2008, with an overall budget of more than €1bn.

The partnership will see a doubling of the budget to €2bn over the next decade compared with its previous incarnation, as well as a new strategy for the technology development.

“We thank the European Commission for its huge investment,” said Rene Schutte, chair of the governing board of the Clean Hydrogen Partnership, speaking at an event during EU Green Hydrogen Week in December. “We understand our responsibility and reaffirm our commitment to making the clean hydrogen joint undertaking a success. We have many challenges that lie ahead.”

Schutte went on to outline three of these challenges as key: scaling up of production, regulation and the development of hydrogen valleys.

The Clean Hydrogen Partnership will look to enact specific measures to tackle each of these challenges.

Production

On scaling up production it will continue to identify and finance the development of new technologies—as it did under its previous incarnation as the FCH JU, which last year financed four innovative hydrogen projects.

The Clean Hydrogen Partnership will also take a more co-ordinated approach to working with other innovation schemes—such as Bill Gates’ Mission Innovation scheme, the EU’s Clean Aviation Joint Undertaking public-private partnership, low-carbon steel partnerships and hydrogen schemes in Africa.

“Africa has the greatest untapped potential for renewable energy production,” said European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen at the same event last month. “Creating a new clean hydrogen market could bring green energy to Europe and create sustainable development in Africa.”

Regulation

On regulation, the partnership will help ensure certification schemes for hydrogen with differing levels of carbon intensity benefit the industry rather than hinder it.

“Hydrogen will play a central role in allowing Europe to reduce its emissions” Paquet, European Commission

It will also feed in to discussions around the additionality of renewable generation used to power green hydrogen generation.

“A workable approach to additionality is key to the achievement of European hydrogen strategy,” says Schutte.

Industry figures are concerned that rigid additionality criteria will make it challenging to link large-scale hydrogen with large-scale renewable energy due to the different development times of the two technologies.

Hydrogen valleys

Finally, hydrogen valleys—sometimes known as clusters—will play a central role in allowing Europe to reduce production costs by matching supply effectively to demand in the early stages of development.

“We will work on scaling up hydrogens valleys to the GW-scale by the 2030s,” says Schutte.

There are 20 hydrogen valley projects in Europe. The Clean Hydrogen Partnership wants to increase this number sharply, seeking to accelerate deployment via its Mission Innovation Hydrogen Valley Platform—a global knowledge-sharing and best-practice platform.

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Author: Tom Young