On Thursday 18 June, at the World Hydrogen Forum, the European Commissioner for Energy, Kadri Simson, outlined the four areas that the European Commission considers to be priority for the development of hydrogen.
Firstly, the Commissioner believes it is crucial to increase the market for hydrogen, by stimulating demand in end-uses such as industrial and transport applications and by increasing supply through investing in developing electrolysers with greater capacity.
“Part of this is bringing down the cost of clean hydrogen to make it competitive. For this, we need more and cheaper renewable energy and an efficient electricity market”, said Mrs Simson, recalling that the European Commission will unveil, on 8 July, the strategies on hydrogen (see EUROPE 12496/15) and for smart sector integration (see EUROPE 12485/11).
In particular, the Commission wants to create a ‘Clean Hydrogen Alliance’, along the lines of the Battery Alliance, to accelerate hydrogen deployment and achieve cost reductions and greater competitiveness by bringing together all actors in the hydrogen value chain, the Commissioner said.
The second priority is the creation of a regulatory framework to shape an open and competitive market with unhindered cross border trade and infrastructures to transport hydrogen where it is needed.
Thirdly, Mrs Simson stressed the need for further research and innovation, in order to be able to develop “gigawatt scale” electrolysers and to improve fuel cell and energy storage technology.
In this respect, a €950 million call for proposals, one third of which will be dedicated to energy issues, including a call for a large-scale electrolyser, will be launched in September in the framework of Horizon 2020, she added.
Finally, the Commissioner mentioned the need for international cooperation as a fourth priority area. According to her, “we need common understanding and possibly even the harmonisation of codes and standards for trading hydrogen internationally”.
And she also reiterated that the EU is co-leading the hydrogen initiative of the ‘Clean Energy Ministerial’. (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)