A global expansion of clean hydrogen production to support the transition to a net-zero energy system should be evenly split between the green and blue forms of the fuel to limit the need to scale up renewable electricity generation, according to Giulia Chierchia, BP’s executive vice president strategy & sustainability.

“When we think about the mix of blue versus green…we think of a mix, which is a 50/50 blue and green,” she told a panel discussion at the launch of BP’s annual Statistical Review of World Energy.

“If you only try to produce hydrogen out of green hydrogen with electrolysis, you're basically increasing the amount of renewable that you need to deploy to the system from 550GW in the next 10 to 15 years to 800GW.  So the challenge in terms of additionality and decarbonising the power sector is really high.”

“Economics will determine that the capital flows to the cheapest end solution” – Topping, UN

Nigel ‎Topping, UN climate action champion for COP26, questioned BP’s support for blue hydrogen in the long-term energy mix.

“I'm hearing Giulia saying blue (hydrogen) is going to be 50pc. I mean, if you look at the economic drivers, that’s just crazy,” he said. “Economics will determine that the capital flows to the cheapest end solution,  green hydrogen.”

BP sees hydrogen playing a critical role in the energy transition, with annual production exceeding 600mn t/yr by 2050, compared with 70mn t/yr today.

BP sees blue hydrogen becoming competitive versus grey hydrogen by the end of the decade in “gas favoured hubs”.

“Green hydrogen in areas where you have very good wind and solar resource becomes competitive with blue hydrogen towards 2035,” said Chierchia. “So it will still take some time and we will need to see policy support for investment in technologies and and subsidies to actually drive the switch from from grey into blue and green hydrogen.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Author: Stuart Penson, Editor