Meeting in Luxembourg on Friday 11 June, the Energy Ministers of the EU Member States expressed unanimous support for the development of a European hydrogen market, but were unable to provide the European Commission with common guidelines on how to achieve this.
While many stressed the need for coordinated action and the importance of cooperation between countries—in particular through the development of ‘important project of common European interest’ (IPCEI)—the debate above all showed the persistence of divergences on certain major points, in particular the future role of low-carbon hydrogen.
Renewable versus low carbon hydrogen
During the discussion, Sweden, Austria, Luxembourg, Latvia, Ireland, Denmark, Spain, and Belgium clearly expressed their wish to give priority to renewable hydrogen (produced by electrolysis of water using electricity from renewable energy sources).
The first three even expressed their opposition to the ‘blending’ of hydrogen with natural gas.
In the other ‘camp’, Romania, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia explicitly advocated the use of low-carbon hydrogen (produced from natural gas with carbon capture and storage or from electricity supplied by nuclear power plants), while Poland, Greece, and Finland insisted on respecting the principle of technological neutrality.
The Dutch minister said that both renewable and low-carbon hydrogen will be needed to get the market going in the first instance.
Greece, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Bulgaria have also advocated the use of ‘blending’.
These divisions between Member States were already apparent when the EU Council drew up its conclusions on the EU hydrogen strategy (see EUROPE 12621/14).
Certification system
Many ministers also stressed the importance of clearly defining the different types of hydrogen and of establishing a certification system to ensure the origin of the hydrogen.
In particular, several Member States (Belgium, Sweden, Bulgaria, Lithuania) have argued for a system of guarantees of origin.
Balance between regulation and flexibility
Another point raised by a significant number of countries (France, Cyprus, and the Czech Republic, in particular) is the need to ensure flexibility in the implementation of a European regulatory framework.
For their part, Hungary and Finland called for the avoidance of over-regulation.
Estonia, on the other hand, said it was “too early” to start setting specific hydrogen end-use targets. (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)