Growth, grants, waste & water

The next few months in the US will inevitably involve plenty of speculation, uncertainty and concern within the hydrogen sector, following the outcome of this week’s election. (Donald Trump has, after all, previously described the Biden administration’s flagship Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) programme as “The Green New Scam”).

So, it will be interesting to see if other regions see this as an opportunity to pause or roll back their own ambitions – or as one to take a lead in attracting investment.

In Europe, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen seemed to imply the latter, saying this week that “developing links to connect large-scale green hydrogen projects to end users will be a key part of the European Commission’s upcoming clean industrial deal strategy”. To get going along this path, a new team of commissioners will be tasked “to present the clean industrial deal within 100 days of starting their five-year mandate” – which could mean “as early as the end of February”.

This is against a backdrop in which Europe will have “just 0.7 GW of installed electrolyser capacity by the end of the year, if all proposed projects materialise on time” (according to the International Energy Agency). That’s much less than originally targeted.

Nevertheless, there are some positive tailwinds. For example, “in the last twelve months the EU has seen final investment decisions taken on over 2 GW of renewable hydrogen projects”. And by May, governments in the EU are required to have implemented in their national legislations some crucial binding mandates: “at least 42% of hydrogen used in industry, and 29% in transport, must be renewable by 2030”.

Nicely aligned with this goal of developing hydrogen links was this week’s launch of a “non-binding Call for Interest to identify the needs of future infrastructure users… for Europe’s first major hydrogen corridor”.

This call runs until the middle of December and was opened by the five Transmission System Operators (TSOs) behind the ‘H2med corridor’ project: Enagás, GRTgaz, OGE, REN, and Teréga. Interested stakeholders can give their views on “the consumption, production, and/or marketing of renewable hydrogen” along the corridor, with this latest consultation aiming to “update understanding of the market’s needs from now until 2050”. Results will be shared “in the first quarter of 2025”.