Marine energy. Green hydrogen will have to use a share of the production of renewable energies at sea for ports, the production of energy necessary for the decarbonization of industry and the production of electricity. What are the European and global contexts before COP29 and 30?
MBM. Many countries have adopted a strategy dedicated to low-carbon hydrogen. In 2023, France wanted to support 50% of innovative projects to decarbonize the economy. France 2030 is a lever for acceleration to structure the sector, R&D and investment for decarbonization technologies. The success of the French hydrogen sector, which is now positioned in the world’s top three, shows that the choice and deployment of a dedicated strategy since 2018 by the Government is bearing fruit.
What strategies should be adopted to maintain this lead and achieve an economic and energy transition so that low-carbon hydrogen can take off alongside renewable energies and offshore wind power?
In the current landscape of the energy transition, low-carbon hydrogen is an increasingly essential energy vector. At the intersection of aspirations for sustainability and carbon neutrality, it is crucial in the post-Paris Agreement and post-Covid context, redefining global energy strategies.
Awareness of the climate emergency and the need for a sustainable energy transition have once again propelled hydrogen to the forefront of the political and industrial scene, as at the turn of the 2000s. But today it is asserting itself with much more force and techno-economic credibility, revealing a diversity of approaches and strategies for the post-fossil fuel era across the world.
There is a growing commitment from nations to explore and adopt low-carbon hydrogen. Is it quantitative or qualitative?
The commitment is remarkable. In just a few years, the number of countries involved in the politicization of the sector – mainly reflected in the drafting or adoption of “national hydrogen strategies” by interested governments – has skyrocketed, from less than 20 in 2019 to 120 by December 31, 2023. This evolution illustrates a global awareness and a varied response to contemporary energy challenges. Each country, depending on its specific resources, industrial capacities and ambitions, is forging its own path towards either an electro-hydrogen or a carbon-hydrogen economy.
What is the distribution of low-carbon hydrogen strategies between countries?
The global low-carbon hydrogen scene has rapidly divided between COP21 in Paris and the latest COP28 in Dubai into four main groups of countries. Each has adopted a distinct strategy. Nations poor in renewable energy resources, such as South Korea, Japan, Singapore and Germany, are turning to massive imports of green hydrogen, in whatever form, to try to build energy independence through competition and complementarity between suppliers, which are much more numerous than for natural gas. Hydrocarbon exporters, with limited renewable energy development capacities, such as Qatar and Brunei, are exploring so-called “blue” hydrogen through fossil fuel reforming and carbon capture and storage processes, opening the way for significant greenwashing.
COP28 demonstrated the difficulties for major producer countries to resolve to quickly abandon the extraction of fossil fuels?
Countries with massive hydrocarbon reserves and equally large renewable energy potential, such as Saudi Arabia, Norway or Australia, are indeed adopting a techno-agnostic approach, strategically positioning their hydrogen market across all value chains on paper, but favouring fossil fuels in practice as long as there is demand.
Nations rich in renewable energy but poor in hydrocarbons, such as Chile, Morocco or Colombia, are focusing on the development of green hydrogen, aiming for energy self-sufficiency and a leading role in the global renewable hydrogen market. However, some of these countries are now discovering fossil resources such as natural gas and are gradually reversing their policy focused solely on the renewable + hydrogen pair.
Is the low-carbon hydrogen market mature?
This is an important question. Indeed, this diversity of approaches to low-carbon hydrogen, even though it is not a market close to maturity, demonstrates the complexity of the global energy transition. It also highlights the crucial importance of international cooperation, innovation and resource optimization to meet the technical, economic and political challenges, as they are systemic, global and interconnected. Low-carbon hydrogen is not only a promise of clean and sustainable energy; it also represents a barometer of nations’ environmental commitments and could play a catalytic role in a truly sustainable energy transition. How each country navigates this new field of energy geopolitics will define not only its own energy future, but also its position in a rapidly changing world where clean energy is synonymous with progress, innovation and international leadership, but can also be instrumentalized to slow change, disregarding the climate consequences it engenders.s.
Following COP28, can we envisage strong progress towards decarbonisation and the reduction of the exploitation of fossil fuels?
This is the challenge of the upcoming COP29 in Azerbaijan and COP30 in Brazil: will hydrogen remain the lowest common denominator between fossil fuel extracting countries and countries ready to bet everything on the renewables + hydrogen couple? Regarding hydrogen during COP28, the best rubbed shoulders with the worst… let’s hope that Baku will be different!
Interview by Brigitte Bornemann — director of publications MerVeille Energie energiesdelamer.eu.
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Technip Energies and offshore renewable energies by energiesdelamer.eu
With GO.H2 by T.EN™, a suite of flexible green hydrogen solutions offshore relies on renewable energy sources such as wind and solar. This suite is flexible with tailor-made components to meet the future market which will include the production of green hydrogen or derivatives such as green ammonia or liquid organic hydrogen (LOHC) carriers.
The plant can consist of a fixed structure or a floating unit. Green hydrogen is produced by a seawater desalination unit, then by electrolysis and exported by a transport pipeline to the coast or unloaded onto a carrier vessel.
– for more difficult environments, the substructure can be a Spar floating wind turbine or a semi-submersible platform;
– for large capacities and units further from the coast, hydrogen is converted for low-cost fuel transport, by adding an ammonia or LOHC unit;
– for smaller capacity units, the systems can be located on the floating offshore wind substructure or on the substation.
