Hello Europe, Ukraine Has The Green Hydrogen You’re Looking For

Join daily news updates from CleanTechnica on e-mail. Or follow us on Google News!

The nations of Europe have been throwing many {dollars} on the inexperienced hydrogen business, looking for a strategy to lower imports of pure gasoline from Russia. Nevertheless, the EU’s 2030 manufacturing purpose is sliding out of attain and business stakeholders are complaining that the stuff is simply too costly, even with subsidies. Into this image marches Ukraine with an answer — however it’s going to work provided that the Russian struggle machine is stopped in its tracks.

Inexperienced Hydrogen For Europe: Too Dear?

CleanTechnica has been maintaining a tally of the inexperienced hydrogen goings-on in Europe for about 9 years or so, ever since a go to to the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne launched us to the rising power-to-gas discipline. The concept is to pry hydrogen free from water with electrolysis methods powered by wind, photo voltaic, or different renewables, as an alternative of compacting it out of pure gasoline or coal. Hydrogen is extensively utilized in business and agriculture, except for its potential for decarbonizing transportation.

Issues gave the impression to be transferring alongside in Europe earlier this yr, particularly within the Baltic area the place Baltic Sea offshore wind resources are shut at hand. In January, Mitsubishi additionally introduced plans to construct the world’s biggest electrolyzer plant within the Netherlands, and final week the Hungarian agency MOL Group hit the beginning button on a 10-megawatt electrolysis system in Százhalombatta, billed as the biggest of its type within the area.

Inexperienced hydrogen from that facility will assist cut back fossil gasoline consumption at MOL’s sprawling Danube refinery, serving to the corporate tidy up across the edges of its carbon footprint. “The new technology will gradually replace the natural gas-based production processwhich currently accounts for one sixth of the MOL Group’s total carbon dioxide emissions,” MOL defined.

A lot for the excellent news. On the down facet, in January the main inexperienced hydrogen stakeholder Fortescue opined that Europe’s sustainable H2 industry can’t compete with different elements of the world on price. The steelmaker ArcelorMittal additionally let or not it’s recognized that the corporate can’t make metal in Europe with European inexperienced hydrogen.

The information group Hydrogen Insight bought the ArcelorMittal scoop from the Dutch journal Tendencieswhich cited the pinnacle of the corporate’s European department, Geert van Poelvoorde. “We already know that hydrogen will be expensive in Europe,” van Poelvoorde mentioned. “We will not be able to use it because we would catapult ourselves completely out of the market.”

In the meantime, in March Bloomberg cited the CEO of the French utility ENGIE, Catherine MacGregor, who informed a gathering of journalists that the corporate has “an issue with the regulation, with the economics, and an issue in terms of reliability when it comes to building electrolyzers at scale,” making it seemingly that the EU will miss the purpose of putting in 40 gigawatts’ price of electrolyzers by 2030.

Russia Licks Its LNG Chops

With inexperienced hydrogen off to a rocky begin in Europe, the purpose of prying free from dependence on Russian gasoline appears farther away than ever. US gasoline producers have been lobbying for permission to extend exports of liquid pure gasoline (LNG) to Europe, however apparently Russia has beat them to the punch.

Earlier this month, Reuters took a deep dive into the state of affairs and famous that worldwide sanctions in opposition to Russian gasoline and the blow-up of the notorious Russian gasoline pipeline Nordstream pressured Europe to scramble for various provides. Nonetheless, the sanctions left a few enormous loopholes, and Russian LNG gasoline suppliers have jumped into the breach.

“A Reuters analysis of data found more than a tenth of the Russian gas formerly shipped by pipeline to the European Union has been replaced by LNG delivered into EU ports,” the information group reported on April 3.

“The rise is partly the result of discounts, industry and trading sources say,” they added.

Reuters additionally famous that EU international locations can legally and voluntarily ban Russian LNG ships from their port amenities as of April 1, however the main importers — Spain and Belgium — have already nixed the thought except it applies all throughout the EU.

Ukraine To Relaxation Of Europe: We Have Your Inexperienced Hydrogen

Within the Tendencies interview, AcelorMittal’s Geert van Poelvoorde hinted that the corporate may deploy an alternate pathway to decarbonize its European enterprise, by importing Direct Diminished Iron (DRI) processed with inexperienced hydrogen. The US is among the many international locations supporting new inexperienced hydrogen-based DRI methods, with the intention of reducing emissions by 81%.

One other resolution could be to import extra inexperienced hydrogen, and that seems to be within the works.

A fast search of the Intertubes reveals Nambia, Mauritaniaand India being talked up as exporters of inexperienced hydrogen, inexperienced metals, or each to Europe. Plans for sustainable H2 industries in Nambia and Mauritania are new to the CleanTechnica radar, however we’ve taken observe of India’s ambition to determine itself as a global hydrogen hub.

In the meantime, a useful provider of inexperienced hydrogen is sitting proper there on the EU doorstep, within the type of Ukraine. CleanTechnica caught wind of the plan again in 2022, which includes harnessing Ukraine’s copious wind and solar resources. By Might of 2023, Ukraine was already plotting out the course for a collaborative hydrogen network with Europe as a part of a extra resilient, decentralized grid modernization plan (see extra Ukraine information from CleanTechnica here).

Extra lately, on March 11 of this yr Clean Energy Wire reported on plans to determine a hydrogen community with Europe. The plan is strongly supported by Germany’s Nationwide Hydrogen Council. Clear Vitality Wire cited Nationwide Hydrogen Council co-leader council co-leader Felix Matthes, who noticed that hydrogen exports from Ukraine to Europe would play a key function. “On the way into the European Union, the EU and Ukraine should follow a strategy of a comprehensive Ukrainian Green Deal,” Matthes mentioned.

Chip in a couple of {dollars} a month to help support independent cleantech coverage that helps to speed up the cleantech revolution!

Razom We Stand Bites Again

The cooperative outlook between Ukraine and different European nations provides additional validation to the efforts of the Ukrainian clear vitality group Razom We Standwhich advocates for a significant ban on Russian gasoline and oil imports to Europe, together with a inexperienced post-war restoration for Ukraine.

In an Earth Day 2024 message emailed to CleanTechnicaRazom We Stand re-affirmed the case for renewable vitality as a matter of nationwide safety and peaceable coexistence.

“Instead of perpetuating the cycle of violence by purchasing fossil fuels that fund Russian war crimes in Ukraine, world leaders must seize the opportunity to support Ukraine’s green energy transition,” Razom founder and Director Svitlana Romanko emphasised.

“Without global leaders finally banning Russian LNG gas, pipeline oil, closing the refining loophole and tightening the price cap policy, many nations will continue to hand over money to fuel the Kremlin’s war chest,” she identified.

Romanko additionally cited a determine of $400 billion because the potential worth of Ukrainian clear electrical energy to Europe, in comparison with an estimated price of $10.7-12.9 billion to restore the nation’s energy infrastructure after years of struggle.

If all goes based on plan, Ukraine would even be a mannequin for efforts in different nations. Ukraine could be “the world’s first post-war country rebuilt on renewable energy, setting a global precedent for infrastructure-centred climate actions,” Romanko concluded.

As for the function of inexperienced hydrogen particularly in Ukraine’s post-war restoration, that is determined by the price of electrolyzer methods and renewable vitality, amongst different elements. That additionally is determined by whether or not Ukraine recovers as a vanquished nation tied to Russia’s fossil vitality financial system, or as an unbiased nation poised to share its vast renewable energy resources with the EU.

Serving to issues alongside on the EU facet, over the weekend a ample variety of Republican members of the US Home of Representatives lastly broke from the Russia-friendly contingent of their social gathering to affix with the Democratic facet of the aisle and move a much-delayed aid package for Ukraine. When you have any ideas about that, drop us a observe within the remark thread.

Observe me @tinamcasey on Bluesky, Threads, Instagramt, and LinkedIn.

Photograph: With giant quantities of wind and solar power in hand, Ukraine may turn into a inexperienced hydrogen powerhouse for the EU (courtesy of Razom we Stand).