The revision of the National Hydrogen Strategy represents a fantastic opportunity for France to transform the test of the first solid milestones laid since the launch of this strategy in September 2020, and to make it the world leader in decarbonized hydrogen.
AIn the first half of 2023, industry players and regional representatives, united within France Hydrogène, called on the government to design a revised strategy combining deep decarbonization and reindustrialization of the regions.
For France Hydrogène, “France has the assets in hand: the gigafactories of key hydrogen equipment is being built; a network of SMEs and SMIs is rapidly being structured in the regions; national R&D&I (Research, Development and Innovation) is one of the global drivers of the sector. The decarbonized electricity mix should make it possible to launch projects more quickly on the different uses of hydrogen, and thus build national champions with a sustainable competitive advantage. Far exceeding the initial ambition of the strategy, the intentions of industrial players (more than a million tonnes of decarbonized hydrogen) confirm this potential. The revision of the national strategy comes at a pivotal moment to seize this vast field of opportunities.
While the decarbonization-reindustrialization pair is at the heart of the project for a French hydrogen sector, it appears essential that the revision of the strategy is based simultaneously on long-term decarbonization (i.e. countering the risk of successive “cliff-edge effects” on all emitting sectors) and on the sustainable industrial, fiscal and social return that this generates in the territories.”
What decarbonized strategy?
In this context, the signatories of this manifesto call for not limiting the national strategy to the decarbonization of some of the 50 most emitting industrial sites. “Prioritizing the allocation of hydrogen to a few industrial sectors would seriously compromise the collective effort made by the Government and manufacturers since 2020. Semi-centralized production projects play a pivotal role in the effective deployment of all the links in our strategy, and we therefore welcome the place that the Government plans to give them in the various support mechanisms currently being developed. Indeed, ensuring the development of intermediate-sized electrolysis capacities is essential so that national equipment manufacturers can ramp up and make the necessary progress on the technological learning curve, thus de-risking centralized projects linked to a few large industrial sites.” All the stakeholders, united within France Hydrogen, are mobilized for the deployment of a French hydrogen sector of excellence. They seem to have been heard.
Support for decarbonized hydrogen
Indeed, the French government has launched a vast plan to support the hydrogen sector totaling 9 billion euros. The Minister of Energy Transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, announced at the end of August the signing of a decree for the launch of a support mechanism for the production of decarbonized hydrogen via calls for tender, with an envelope of 4 billion euros for the most virtuous projects.
In detail, they will be launched in 2024, 2025 and 2026 to allocate production capacities, in the form of tranches of 150, 250 and then 600 MW respectively. That is 1,000 MW in total. “Concretely, the winners of the calls for projects will be assigned a score, based 70% on price criteria (based on a ratio of euros per tonne of carbon avoided) and 30% on non-price criteria”, we can read in Le Figaro. A mechanism that has proven itself to develop green electricity from renewable energies. The objective is to erase the price gaps between the production of carbon hydrogen and that of renewable hydrogen. The contracts will be signed for a period of fifteen years. “We first supported the construction of electrolysers or fuel cells and now we are securing the operators’ production and making it competitive,” added Agnès Pannier-Runacher.
This system aims to support manufacturers in purchasing electrolysers and producing decarbonised hydrogen at a competitive cost, since we will offset part of the cost between the price of carbon-free hydrogen and the price of hydrogen produced from fossil fuels. This hydrogen will be used in various heavy industrial processes, to no longer use fossil fuels, whether to produce steel, aluminium or fertilisers. The John Cockerill plant in Aspach-Michelbach illustrates our policy of reindustrialisation and decarbonisation, she declared during a visit, since it is a winning site for the industrial support systems for decarbonisation that we have launched since 2020.
“This is a decisive support, none of this would exist without public authorities and without the support of the State and local authorities,” assured Raphaël Tilot, CEO of John Cockerill Hydrogen. The announcement (of the €4 billion plan) is very positive, it is a readable system, the criteria are completely understandable by manufacturers, so we see it in a very positive light. Europe is moving forward in parallel with what is happening elsewhere in the world, where things are sometimes moving even faster, when we see what is happening in Northern Europe or China. So France and Europe must continue, if possible even faster.” The plant is due to enter production at the end of the year and aims, at the end of a three-year ramp-up phase, to produce annual electrolysers with a power equivalent to 1,000 MW, or 1 GW, making it a gigafactory. The plant will eventually employ nearly 300 employees, about a third of the recruitments have already taken place. It has benefited from a subsidy of 100 million. “We are agnostic about the nature of the electricity that will enter the electrolyser, provided that it is low-carbon, it can be of nuclear or renewable origin, it is the project leaders who will decide,” added the ministry. ′
