The newly elected Labour government in the UK is promising to create a state-owned entity, GB Energy, to drive forward its energy transition. Robert Johnston at CGEP explains what it is, and how it could be a model for other nations. Up until now, the policy toolkit of high-income OECD countries has primarily been the use of subsidies, tax credits, government procurement, R&D grants, trade policy and the like. GB Energy will directly invest … [Read more...]
Hydrogen too expensive for Trucking? 85% of the cost is getting it to the pump
Hydrogen can be a clean fuel for heavy duty trucking. The target price for rapid adoption is $4-$5/kg, yet right now hydrogen costs $13-$16/kg at refuelling stations in California. Cutting the cost of making the hydrogen is proving slow. But Ted McKlveen and Bav Roy at Verne, writing for WEF, show that the production only accounts for 15% of the cost at the pump. Roughly 50% of the cost is from running the pump station (equipment like compressors … [Read more...]
58 national Hydrogen strategies published: a step forward, but importersā and exportersā plans still need to match up
So far, 58 national hydrogen strategies and roadmaps have been published. Anne-Sophie Corbeau and Rio Kaswiyanto at the Center on Global Energy Policy take a close look, summarising their regularly updated database, the āNational Hydrogen Strategies and Roadmap Tracker.ā Only 12 countries are planning to become importers, mostly in Asia and Europe. Most of the others plan to be exporters. Many existing fossil fuel exporters want to preserve their … [Read more...]
Financing Hydrogen projects in Emerging Markets and Developing Countries
Financing the new hydrogen economy is already a challenge. Financing hydrogen production in Emerging Markets and Developing Countries (EMDC) is an even bigger one, yet vitally important for supplying richer nations with hydrogen while creating new industries in the EMDC. This month, the World Bank Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP) together with the Government of the Netherlands and Invest International organised a Financing … [Read more...]
Zero-Emission Trucks can be cost competitive by 2035 (and much sooner depending on size and range)
Zero-emission medium- and heavy-duty vehicles (MHDVs) such as battery electric and hydrogen fuel cell electric, in every size and range category, can be cost competitive with their diesel equivalents by 2035. In several of those categories it can be much sooner ā within the next six years - explains Julia Thomas at NREL. Researchers there have modelled how the total cost of driving for zero-emission and diesel MHDVs can evolve over time under … [Read more...]
The EUās inaugural Hydrogen subsidy auction. What have we learned?
At the end of April, the winners were announced of the first pilot auction to allocate subsidies for EU hydrogen production via the European Hydrogen Bank. The winning bids were between ā¬0.37 and ā¬0.48 per kg, much lower than the ā¬4 ā ā¬6 per kg estimated āgreen premiumā cost gap between renewable hydrogen and fossil hydrogen in Europe. The low bids mean companies applied for fewer subsidies than needed to bridge that āgreen premiumā gap because … [Read more...]
Low Emission Hydrogen: creating markets to get buyers to make firm commitments
Low emission hydrogen is expected to play an important role in global decarbonisation, though costs today are very high and must come down. Economies of scale will help, but production is yet to pick up pace as there are inadequate ādemand signalsā which result in financial risks for project developers. Kapil Narula and Luciano Caratori of Climate Champions Team, Laurent Antoni at IPHE, and Nigel Topping (former UN Climate Change High-Level … [Read more...]
Green Steelmakersā global future: importing the Iron from where Renewables are cheap, the Ore abundant
Governments in Europe have allocated around ā¬5bn to 10 commercial-scale hydrogen-ready DRI (direct reduced iron) facilities for steelmaking, but even with these generous subsidies steelmakers are struggling to reach final investment decisions, citing high costs for domestic hydrogen as a barrier. And when you consider that over ā¬400bn is needed to transition the entire European sector to hydrogen-based steelmaking, a totally new way of thinking … [Read more...]
Strict rules stop Green Hydrogen production diverting clean power from the grid. What are they?
Green hydrogen must be made from green electricity. But the electricity used for making it must fulfil stricter requirements than conventional green electricity. Matthis Brinkhaus at Energy Brainpool describes the criteria by which hydrogen can be designated as 100% renewable: Additionality; Additionality Plus; Temporal correlation, simultaneity; Geographical correlation, regionality. Brinkhaus points at where exceptions can be made, and where … [Read more...]
Green Steel: pathways for the new hydrogen-powered DRI-EAF projects
H2-DRI-EAF uses hydrogen (H2) to produce direct reduced iron (DRI), which is then processed in an electric arc furnace (EAF) to produce steel. The two main challenges are ensuring an adequate supply of DR-grade iron ore, and cutting the end-to-end cost of making hydrogen. But right now, clean green hydrogen production is in its infancy, and therefore so are green steel plans. Soroush Basirat at IEEFA surveys the landscape, looking at the U.S., … [Read more...]
Research into how electrons and protons couple at an electrode can create more efficient fuel cells, electrolysers
Every efficiency gain discovered in the lab feeds through to the final cost of electricity. Anne Trafton at MIT describes new research looking at how electrons and protons couple at an electrode surface, which drives electric current. Itās a critical step in many energy technologies, including fuel cells, hydrogen electrolysers, batteries, and CO2 conversion into chemical fuels. The first step was to develop a way to design electrode surfaces … [Read more...]
Hydrogen: most nationsā plans to export to Europe donāt match reality. The EU should make it itself
The EUās RePowerEU plan, quickly made in response to Russiaās invasion of Ukraine, aims to produce 20m tonnes of renewable hydrogen by 2030, with half coming from imports. Here, T&E summarise their report that concludes this is unrealistic. The report looks at six key countries with plans to export hydrogen to the EU: Norway, Chile, Egypt, Morocco, Namibia and Oman. T&E says these countries combined would only be able to deliver a quarter … [Read more...]
Iron Ore miners try different multi-billion strategies to lower emissions for Steel producers
2024 should see a further acceleration in steelās transition away from coal, with increasing pressure on companies in the value chain to act on their Scope 3 (indirect) emissions, explains Simon Nicholas at IEEFA. Old coal-fired blast furnaces that use low-grade iron ore are already being replaced with the direct reduced iron (DRI) process in Europe and China. That means the ābig fourā iron ore miners have to ramp up production of high-grade iron … [Read more...]
Will EU decarbonisation policies shift the Fertiliser industry into making Ammonia for energy (but outside the EU)?
The EUās fertiliser industry must face up to the regionās ambitious decarbonisation rules, making its carbon-intensive processes much more costly. But a door of opportunity is also being opened: the industry already produces ammonia which is increasingly being seen as an alternative clean fuel, explains Hyung-Ja de Zeeuw at Rabobank. The problem for EU nations is that it will be cheaper for the industry to relocate and make that ammonia somewhere … [Read more...]
Massive global expansion of Renewables coming. But weāre still short 20% of our 2030 target
The IEA has released the 143-page āRenewables 2023ā, the latest edition of its annual report on the sector. The world added 50% more renewable capacity in 2023 than in 2022 and the next 5 years will see fastest growth yet. Under current policies and market conditions, global renewable capacity is already on course to increase by two-and-a-half times by 2030: great news but still short of the tripling we need. A key reason for the gap is the lack … [Read more...]
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