Green hydrogen can become established as the dominant form without the need for government subsidies—so long as there is a level playing field with rival net-zero options, industry leaders at CeraWeek asserted.

Developed world populations, increasingly focused on net-zero targets, will be willing to pay the premium associated with green hydrogen while economies of scale are being created, according to Seifi Ghasemi, chairman, president & CEO of Air Products & Chemicals.

Consumer demand is rapidly shifting towards sustainable products, with people increasingly prepared to pay more for green products, from organic foods to net-zero cruise ship tickets, he noted.

“Green hydrogen as an energy storage technology we think comes first. The application of green hydrogen as a fuel we think comes second” Browning, Mitsubishi Power Americas

Popular opinion, especially among the young, is far more important than government policies. “I am not a great believer in government subsidies and all of that. Those things come and go,” he said noting that they often result in sub-commercial scale “toy projects” of 10-20t/yr. “Those things are nothing, they do not move the needle.”

Ghasemi sees attitudes to green hydrogen in distinct geographical groups with Europe and certain US states such as California leading the way. “People just want to do away with hydrocarbons, and that is why they are going to be focused on green hydrogen,” he says, noting that there will be demand for blue hydrogen in the next politico-geographical tranche and for grey in the remainder. “That is why we are focused on all forms of hydrogen,” added the head of the world’s biggest hydrogen producer.

Heterogeneous demand

Asia perhaps presents the clearest example of how attitudes to the creation and use of hydrogen are developing. Demand for the different types of hydrogen is “quite heterogeneous” in the region, noted Jochen Eickholt, member of the executive board, Siemens Energy.

On the one hand there are countries installing new coal-fired plants—indicating a lack of willingness to pay a green premium—while there are also “forward-looking economies and societies” such as Japan and Singapore.

“People just want to do away with hydrocarbons, and that is why they are going to be focused on green hydrogen” Ghasemi, Air Products & Chemicals

“For us, the world is heterogeneous [in Asia]. We see a massive demand coming up. [Even] in the perhaps more conservative countries and societies, where coal is still being deployed, we actually do see signs for a change in trend and for the increasing use of hydrogen,” he says. “More in the lighter colours—so blue or green.”

Eickholt noted there is a “massive number of projects being developed and supported by the European Union” and there is “quite a development towards these new technologies”.

“Blue hydrogen, we believe, will plays a big role… Green hydrogen, from our perspective, will be used in the scaling up of the projects at various levels, [and] really follow an exponential growth curve.”

Level playing field

Governments are getting behind hydrogen as there are few routes to fulfilling net-zero commitments without it. Hydrogen allows greater penetration of renewables in the power mix because it can store surplus power for an indefinite amount of time and therefore manage intermittency.

“They are all realising there is no way to really get to net zero without a way to store renewable power for long periods of time. That is really the role that hydrogen is going to play in the power sector,” says Paul Browning, president & CEO, Mitsubishi Power Americas.

Establishing the use of green hydrogen in power generation should be the first step as it necessarily involves the massive scale that would help push down costs for other applications. 

“[Even] in the perhaps more conservative countries and societies… we actually do see signs for a change in trend and for the increasing use of hydrogen” Eickholt, Siemens Energy

“One of the things that we think is very important is this application of green hydrogen as an energy storage technology we think comes first. The application of green hydrogen as a fuel we think comes second.

“The reason is the power sector is going to build the infrastructure that is necessary and scale electrolysis to a point where the cost of green hydrogen declines enough that it starts to become available enough and cheap enough source to be a fuel.”

Browning called on governments to reform outdated policies to create a level playing field for green hydrogen, which would then facilitate the creation of related infrastructure.

For example, US tax code provides a standalone credit for storage connected to a power station but Mitsubishi’s project in Delta, Utah, is going to be the largest energy storage project in the world, at 150,000MWh, and “that is enough to back up the power grid, not an individual [power] project”.

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Author: Alastair O’Dell<BR>Senior Editor