The 2023 annual report published by France Hydrogène reports on the highlights of the year, the dynamism of the sector and its players. The development of hydrogen is booming with many projects that should come to fruition. A look back at the beginnings of a major deployment of the sector, between production and uses.
« The deployment time requires the mobilization of everyone,” Philippe Boucly, President of France Hydrogène.
“Three years after the publication of the National Hydrogen Strategy, its current revision is an opportunity to take stock of the efforts undertaken, as well as the needs and areas for vigilance by 2030,” announces Philippe Boucly in his introduction to the 2023 report. The president welcomes the support for the sector at European level, which recognizes hydrogen as a strategic industry, and the materialization of support from the French government, which has allocated 4 billion to the deployment of 1 GW of electrolysers by 2026. However, he highlights the too slow structuring of the regulatory and legislative framework in France and Europe, while the United States and China are doing everything possible to support their champions.
We need to accelerate to obtain an electrolysis power of 6.5 gigawatts in 2030, the initial objective of the National Strategy. “The revision of the National Hydrogen Strategy provides the opportunity to transform the test of the milestones set over the past three years. Deploying equipment and infrastructure takes time, delays that must be reduced as much as possible. Beyond that, the decarbonization and reindustrialization alliance that is the basis of our sector’s raison d’être must be deployed without restricting the initial ambition: to promote all uses of hydrogen, which will create value and jobs in our territories, concludes the President.”
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The legislative framework
The report states that the strategic challenges of the energy transition require the development of a clear legal framework that promotes and secures the commitment of investors and industrialists. This need is urgent in the current context of geopolitical uncertainty.
Legislative texts and financing mechanisms are multiplying, at global, European and national levels, between the development of the sector and the preservation of regional and national interests. More than fifty States have published a strategy or roadmap on hydrogen. Around twenty countries have published a new strategy or revised a pre-existing strategy.
United States, China, India
Following the publication of the IRA (Inflation Reduction Act), the United States published its hydrogen strategy in 2023, production opportunities of 10 million tons of hydrogen by 2030, 30 million tons by 2040 and 50 million tons by 2050. The American President presented on October 13 in Philadelphia the seven regional hubs of the United States that will become “hydrogen hubs” and will benefit from 7 billion dollars in public subsidies. The objective is for these hubs to produce 3 million tons of hydrogen own per year, about a third of the U.S. production target for 2030.
China, the leading consumer and producer of carbon-based hydrogen, has taken the lead in the deployment of decarbonized hydrogen worldwide. The country accounted for 30% of the world’s installed hydrogen electrolysis production capacity in 2022. This share could reach 50% by the end of 2023, with 1.1 GW of capacity deployed. On the industrial front, China concentrated 50% of the 14 GW of global electrolyzer production capacity available in 2023 on its territory.
India’s hydrogen strategy, released in January 2023, aims to produce 5 million tonnes of renewable hydrogen by 2030.
For its part, Germany has doubled its electrolyser deployment target, from 5 to 10 GW, as part of its revised strategy in July 2023.
European framework
The decisions taken in 2023 by the European Union constitute decisive steps to stabilize the regulatory framework and promote final decision-making. First in February with the publication of the two delegated acts defining RFNBOs (renewable fuels of non-biological origin), adopted in June. In March, France and Germany managed to agree on compromises to recognize, under certain conditions, the role of hydrogen produced from nuclear electricity, in achieving European targets for the use of decarbonized hydrogen. These compromises thus made it possible to adopt European texts:
– the revised Renewable Energy Directive (RED3), which notably sets a target of using 42% RFNBO hydrogen or 77% non-fossil hydrogen in industry by 2030;
– the ReFuelEU Aviation Regulation, which sets quotas for the use of non-fossil synthetic fuels (derived from hydrogen produced from renewable or nuclear electricity), with a target of 1.2% in 2030–2031.
In France: strategy to be revisited
In France, the ambitious national hydrogen strategy, which aims for the world’s leading roles in decarbonized hydrogen, has reached a milestone with the announcement of its revision and must evolve according to France Hydrogène. It is important to maintain the initial ambition, based on the decarbonization-reindustrialization alliance, where the deployment of a robust sector and a competitive offer goes hand in hand with the stimulation of demand and the growth of technologies promoting different uses. In France, the two acceleration laws relating to nuclear power and renewable energies should contribute to this.
At the same time, the government is committed to setting up a support mechanism for the production of decarbonized hydrogen produced by electrolysis to deploy a gigawatt of electrolysis through calls for tender in tranches of 150, 250 and 600 MW, between 2024 and 2026, with a key of 4 billion euros as part of the overall envelope of 9.2 billion euros intended for the sector by 2030.
For its part, Ademe has financed 35 hydrogen ecosystems since 2018, as part of two call for projects. For an amount of 320 million euros, these ecosystems will generate 100 hydrogen stations and represent more than 80 MW of electrolysis. The third part of this call for projects, “Territorial ecosystems”, was relaunched in May for an aid amount of 175 million euros, with the aim of promoting the establishment and operation of new hydrogen production infrastructures (by water electrolysis or biomass pyrogasification) and distribution infrastructures, as well as mobility. It also covers the extension of ecosystems.
Markets of uses
A major pillar of the decarbonization of the economy and national energy independence, hydrogen technologies are gradually entering the landscape, between mass production capacities, transport and distribution infrastructures and development of uses, particularly in terms of heavy and intensive mobility. If we add mass storage demonstrators, aeronautics and maritime sectors, as well as e-fuel production projects, all the links in the value chain are being put in place.
Décarboner the industry
In line with the National Hydrogen Strategy and the European Union’s roadmap for an energy transition that aim to ensure industrial and energy sovereignty, several low-carbon and renewable hydrogen production sites have been identified, most of which are located in industrial basins with a high decarbonization challenge, around industries that are high consumers (refineries) or emitters due to energy-intensive processes (steelworks, cement works), in ecosystems that mix uses (industry, energy, mobility), such as in port areas for example. The massive nature of the investments implies a long duration, notes the report which details the various projects in progress such as Normand’hy, Hyd’hoc, Hydromer, Gravity and Hyvence (cf. articles in this magazine).
In addition, various infrastructure and equipment projects are being developed to store, transport and distribute hydrogen. The deployment of hydrogen in France is structured around 7 major geographical areas (ports, the Seine and Rhône Valleys and the borders with Spain and Germany), making the commissioning of transport and mass storage infrastructures essential.
Promoting mobility
Mobility is an axis that will structure hydrogen production and distribution systems, such as the new Lhyfe site in Buléon (see in this issue) or in Occitanie. At the same time, the network of stations is starting to take shape. An energy vector adapted to heavy and intensive mobility, technologies and infrastructures are gradually gaining momentum in the road and maritime sectors.
Hydrogen mobility is primarily aimed at professional fleet vehicles operating in intensive use: light and medium utility vehicles, sedans, urban vehicles (buses and garbage trucks), heavy goods vehicles, forklifts. Hydrogen buses are investing in the urban landscape. For faster development, retrofitting is being structured and hydrogen propulsion is not forgotten either.
Highly energy-intensive and CO-emitting2the maritime and river sectors are taking a close interest in hydrogen solutions with small capacity demonstrators already operational.
This year also marked a new step within the aeronautics sector to achieve carbon neutrality in the aviation sector by 2050, in line with the objective set by the International Civil Aviation Organization in October 2022. The roadmap focuses on sustainable fuels (SAF).
