01 Feb Will the EU Lose the Lead?

Source: http://spglobal.com

Last September, the European Parliament discarded a key policy framework ruling renewable hydrogen. At first, the reaction of the industry was positive but soon after developers’ investment halted due to the lack of certainty.

The EU aims at 10 million mt/year of renewable hydrogen production and a further 10 million mt/year of imports by 2030. S&P Global analysts forecast around 4.5 million mt/year of European production by 2030 and a similar volume of imports.

Daniel Fraile, Hydrogen Europe Chief Policy Officer, said that 2023 would be a year of final investment decisions regarding investment for the first major hydrogen projects in Europe provided policy certainty is guaranteed.

The US has introduced the Inflation Reduction Act setting out clear and simple subsidies for clean hydrogen production, which has attracted those developers and investors that found it hard to work under the EU rules. The European Union might lose its lead unless its policies provide energy transition security.