The European Union has set a target of realising climate neutrality by 2050. For this, current greenhouse gas emissions should drop significantly, more than 55% by 2030. In this scenario, the demand for hydrogen is expected to rise by 8-fold by 2050. Apart from industry, hydrogen demand in other sectors such as transportation and building is expected to rise significantly.

The ‘Fit for 55’ package has been developed to revise and update EU legislation to keep EU policies in line with the climate goals. Under ‘Fit for 55’ package, the EC has set a target of 10Mt of domestic hydrogen production and 10Mt of imports by 2030 to replace natural gas, coal and oil mainly to decarbonise transport and industries.

In order to achieve the hydrogen production target, the EU commission recently approved the first set of 41 important projects, officially called as IPCEI Hy2Tech. Thirty-five companies and 15 member states including Germany, France, Netherlands and Spain are involved. The commission has authorised EUR5.4bn (US$5.29bn) of aid and expects another EUR8.8bn (US$8.62bn) of private investment.

Similarly, the second important project, IPCEI HyUse was approved by the commission in September 2022. For this, thirteen member states including Spain, Netherlands, France and Norway will provide EUR5.2bn (US$5.09bn) in public funding and this fund is expected to attract additional EUR7bn (US$6.85bn) private investments. Twenty-nine companies along with member states will participate in 35 projects.

European clean hydrogen alliance was launched in 2020 to bring industry, national and local body, civil society and other stakeholders. The objective of the alliance is to achieve ambitious implementation of hydrogen technologies by 2030.

The alliance aims to bring together renewable hydrogen production, consumption in industry, transport and other sectors, and hydrogen transmission and distribution. For example, hosting ‘electrolyser partnership’ to bring together electrolyser manufacturers and component suppliers to achieve manufacturing capacity of 17.5 GW by 2025 in Europe.

The EU alliance members have submitted more than 1,000 projects for investment pipeline. Many projects cover hydrogen production and use in industries. The projects are located across Europe and are expected to start production by the end of 2025.

Germany

In February 2022, Germany allocated EUR200bn (US$220bn) to fund industrial transformation until 2026, mostly in climate protection and hydrogen technology. The German government expects a hydrogen production capacity of 5GW by 2030. To achieve this goal, multiple hydrogen projects have been initiated.

AquaVentus aims to use offshore wind farms in the North Sea to operate electrolysers. The total capacity of the electrolysis units installed will be 10GW by 2035. This will produce 1Mt of green hydrogen. The owner of the project is RWE, who aims to expand green energy generation capacity of 50GW by 2030, investing EUR50bn (US$49.6bn).

The Netherlands

The Netherlands is planning a EUR1.5bn (US$1.49bn) hydrogen network and is expected to go online in 2027. The network will have initial capacity of 10GW.

NortH2 aims to supply 10GW of green hydrogen by 2040. Initially hydrogen will be produced in Eemshaven and will be around 1Mtpa. This is expected to reduce carbon emission up to 10tpa. NortH2 is a consortium owned by Equinor, Eneco, Gasunie, Groningen Seaports, RWE and Shell Nederland.

Hydrogen delta aims to build a Gigawatt factory in the Delta region. The project modality will be production and distribution through hydrogen network. The capacity will be 1GW and the project period will be 2020-2030.

The Hydrogen Chemistry company (HyCC) is developing 500mW green hydrogen project at the Port of Amsterdam. The operation will begin in 2027. HyCC is also planning to build 100MW in IJmuiden.

Spain

The Spanish government has developed ‘Hydrogen Roadmap: A commitment to Renewable Hydrogen’ plan to contribute to achieving climate neutrality. It is expected that it requires over US$10bn to achieve this road map during the period 2020-2030.

HyDeal Espana will start production in 2025. The total installation capacity by 2030 will be 9.5GW solar power and 7.4GW electrolysers. ArcelorMittal and Fertiberia along with other companies have committed to buy 6.6Mt of green hydrogen across 20 years.

Iberdrola inaugurated green hydrogen plant in Puertollano. The plant will produce up to 3ktpa renewable hydrogen. Iberdrola plan to invest EUR9bn by 2030 to produce 400ktpa green hydrogen.

France

The French government aims to invest over EUR7bn between 2020-2030 for the development of a low-carbon hydrogen industry.

GravitHy consortium plans to install 650MW electrolyser to produce 110ktpa hydrogen. The electrical power needed for the electrolyser will be sourced from wind and solar. The construction will start in 2024.  

The UK

The UK government aims to develop hydrogen production capacity of 5GW by 2030. The focus of hydrogen production in UK has been on steam reforming of methane to produce low carbon hydrogen called as ‘blue hydrogen’.

SSE Thermal and Equinor are developing hydrogen storage facility at Aldbrough. The expected capacity will be of 320GWh. The project will be completed by 2028. Similarly, Equinor to develop 1.8GW blue hydrogen production facility in the same region.