The European Fee has tabled long-awaited guidelines defining the circumstances below which hydrogen may be labelled as coming from “renewable” vitality sources. Final minute, Paris additionally gained recognition for low-carbon hydrogen produced from nuclear electrical energy.
As Europe turns to hydrogen, there are fears that electrolysers producing the gaseous gasoline will drive up demand for energy and cannibalise renewable electrical energy supposed for different makes use of.
To stop this, the European Fee has been engaged on a algorithm to make sure inexperienced hydrogen makes use of solely “extra” sources of renewable electrical energy.
After greater than a 12 months of delay attributable to intense lobbying from Paris and Berlin, the EU govt lastly adopted these guidelines on Friday night (10 February), in accordance with paperwork obtained by EURACTIV.
To make sure inexperienced hydrogen is made solely from “extra” renewable energy, the Fee sought to correlate its manufacturing in time and house. In accordance with this precept, a Spanish hydrogen producer, as an example, could be unable to assert hydrogen as renewable if the electrical energy used got here from Sweden.
How intently the 2 must be correlated – hourly or quarterly, 50 kilometres aside or from a neighbouring nation – have since been topic of intense debate, with trade pushing for looser guidelines and inexperienced campaigners insisting on a detailed correlation to keep away from cannibalisation.
After months of hesitation, the Fee lastly took a choice and set out two necessary standards:
- By 2030, hydrogen manufacturing should be matched to renewable vitality manufacturing on an hourly foundation. Till then, the correlation is ready on a month-to-month foundation.
- By 2028, hydrogen producers should show that their electrolysers are linked to renewable vitality installations no older than 36 months.
With these standards, Europe’s hydrogen trade is now relieved.
“It’s of paramount significance that authorized certainty can now ultimately be ensured in order that investments can start,” mentioned Jorgo Chatzimarkakis, CEO of Hydrogen Europe, a foyer group.
Till now, hydrogen buyers have been “chomping on the bit” to make closing funding selections in Europe, he informed EURACTIV.
Hydrogen Europe had earlier warned in opposition to an exodus of hydrogen corporations throughout the Atlantic following the adoption of the Inflation Discount Act within the US.
French victory
In precept, the European Fee expects the time and house correlation standards to turn into irrelevant as soon as 90% of electrical energy manufacturing in a given nation comes from renewable sources.
That is the place France scored a significant victory.
For months, French politicians have lobbied Brussels to hammer the purpose that inexperienced hydrogen also needs to come from low-carbon nuclear electrical energy, not simply renewables.
“There’s a actual danger right now that the discussions in Brussels will result in the imposition of very excessive targets of renewable hydrogen for trade […] with out considering the share of hydrogen that may be produced from electrical energy of nuclear origin,” mentioned French vitality minister Agnès Pannier-Runacher.
In accordance with her, this implies a rustic like France risked being prevented from utilizing its carbon-free electrical energy to provide hydrogen.
“It clearly doesn’t make sense, it’s absurd and it’s above all opposite to our European decarbonisation goals,” she informed a small group of journalists final week.
That danger now seems to be eradicated. Beneath the principles adopted Friday, hydrogen shall be thought-about inexperienced if the typical carbon depth of a rustic’s electrical energy grid “is decrease than 18gCO2eq/MJ,” in accordance with the Fee’s proposal.
This implies the exception applies so long as a rustic’s electrical energy manufacturing emits lower than 65 grammes of CO2 equal per kilowatt hour, EURACTIV understands.
And amongst all 27 EU nations, solely France and Sweden meet this standards. In 2022, when greater than half of its nuclear fleet was offline, French energy emissions stood at 73g CO2e per kWh. Sweden, for its half, stood at 22gCO2e/Kwh.
As well as, all inexperienced standards imposed on European producers will apply equally to hydrogen imported from overseas, one other win for France which fought in opposition to stress from Berlin to impose looser standards on imported hydrogen.
Altogether, “this goes within the route of pro-nuclear nations in addition to these hostile to imports,” confirms Mikaa Mered, a lecturer on hydrogen markets, diplomacy and geopolitics at Sciences Po in Paris.
Trade relieved
In accordance with Hydrogen Europe, credit score additionally goes to the European Parliament for making the principles extra versatile for EU producers.
Certainly, lawmakers in Parliament cancelled a deliberate spherical of talks on the EU’s renewable vitality directive earlier this week, citing the absence of hydrogen “additionality” guidelines as the rationale – a transfer which piled stress on the EU govt to press forward with its proposal.
Josche Muth, head of regulatory and public affairs P2X at Danish electrical energy main Ørsted, was amongst these expressing satisfaction with the EU’s new algorithm.
“Nice that it lastly has been adopted, as a result of to date lower than 10% of tasks have made a closing funding selections,” Muth informed EURACTIV. The trade was “very eager” to make the “hydrogen market take form extra rapidly,” he added.
The precise texts, seen by EURACTIV, have but to be formally revealed within the EU’s register of delegated acts. Nonetheless, last-minute modifications aren’t anticipated.
> The principle doc, referred to as a “delegated act” in EU jargon, is obtainable beneath and can be downloaded right here. Two different paperwork are additionally out there: a “delegated regulation” (right here) and an annex (right here).
[Editing and additional reporting by Frédéric Simon]
