Paul McCormack, CEO of Hydrogen Ireland and a pivotal figure in Europe’s green hydrogen transition, has been appointed to the Energy News Advisory Board.
A mechanical engineer and MBA graduate with 30 years of cross-sector leadership, McCormack is renowned for bridging technical innovation with community-centric energy strategies. His work, spanning EU-funded R&D projects, SME startups, and Ireland’s first Hydrogen Training Academy, positions him as a critical voice in debates over hydrogen’s role in equitable decarbonization.
McCormack’s career is anchored in high-stakes innovation. As founder of Hydrogen Ireland, he spearheaded the €12.36 million GenComm project, securing the first Horizon 2020 funding for a further education college in Europe. His Hydrogen Training Academy, launched in 2021, has upskilled over 1,200 professionals inelectrolyzer operations and safety, addressing a critical gap in Europe’s green workforce.
Power-to-X and the “Energy Equation”
Central to McCormack’s influence is his development of a proprietary “energy equation” framework, which quantifies hydrogen’s socioeconomic impact—from job creation to carbon abatement costs—for policymakers. This tool informed Ireland’s 2023 National Hydrogen Strategy, emphasizing sector coupling in agriculture and transport. His current EU projects test scalability in regions with grid constraints, including H2AZEL (hydrogen-powered rural microgrids) and HOST (hybrid offshore wind-hydrogen storage).
A founder of the Cluster Facilitators Forum, McCormack champions “3-D clustering,” a strategy fostering organic growth through cross-industry collaboration. This model underpins Hydrogen Ireland’s partnerships with Siemens Energy and ESB Networks, which are integrating digital twins for hydrogen leakage detection. His entrepreneurial ventures—including bio-polymer packaging startups—reflect a philosophy of “orange light innovation”: acting before market signals turn green.
While McCormack’s work extends to African and Asian hydrogen valleys via EU delegations, he stresses localized solutions. The H2CAT project, deploying hydrogen-powered ferries in Catalonia, exemplifies his focus on community co-benefits—a contrast to megaprojects like Saudi Arabia’s NEOM. However, Ireland’s lack of hydrogen refueling infrastructure (just two public stations operational by 2024) underscores systemic hurdles his frameworks aim to address.
McCormack’s appointment reinforces Energy News’ commitment to analyzing hydrogen’s technical, economic, and social dimensions.
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