CEOs from major organizations across the value chain, top EU decision-makers, and hundreds of stakeholders gathered at the Renewable Hydrogen Coalition’s (RHC) Renewable Hydrogen Summit to discuss the policy guidelines to speed up the renewable hydrogen uptake in Europe and deliver the European Commission’s (EC) REPowerEU plan to cut our continent’s reliance on fossil imports.
According to the European Commission, scaling up renewable hydrogen and its derivatives would speed decarbonization and reduce the EU’s dependency on Russian natural gas by around 27 bcm.
Energy Commissioner K. Simson stressed “We have to diversify away from Russian fossil fuels. This means speeding up the green transition. Renewable hydrogen plays a crucial role to decarbonise hard-to-electrify industry and transport. We need it for the planet, we need it for our independence and security of energy supply. With RepowerEU, we plan to roll out this solution faster, taking our EU Green Deal ambitions to the next level and giving ourselves the tools to make it happen”.
The RHC Chair Mr Ignacio Galán, Chairman and CEO of Iberdrola, said “Renewable hydrogen is a solution for today and for tomorrow. It can significantly replace imported fossil fuels and polluting hydrogen made out of these fossil fuels. The Renewable Hydrogen Coalition members are helping to deliver EU climate and energy ambition, making our continent cleaner and stronger thanks to home-grown renewable hydrogen produced with technologies made in Europe”, adding “We congratulate the Commission’s strong leadership in REPowerEU. This should be followed by enabling and stable policies that spur a supply and demand shock and boost investments now”.
The RHC urges policymakers to immediately take the following actions:
- Adopt a definition of renewable hydrogen that is enabling. We appreciate the proposed Delegated Act by the European Commission and recognize the major efforts made to better represent the reality of projects: lengthy and costly permission procedures impede the deployment of renewables that Europe requires to accomplish its energy and climate goals. To accomplish the REPowerEU objective, first movers must be able to increase their renewable hydrogen supply, and their business cases must be protected.
- In the interest of the public and the industry, simplify the permitting process for renewable energy and renewable hydrogen installations. Building the necessary additional capacity for renewable hydrogen production requires expedited permitting.
- Adopt the European Commission’s most ambitious binding targets for the use of renewable hydrogen and derived e-fuels in hard-to-electrify industry and transportation. The obligatory nature of the targets is vital for sending a strong market signal, releasing current demand, and driving large upstream investments in the value chain.
- Facilitate and streamline access to assistance and financing mechanisms. The transition to clean technologies remains expensive for users. Carbon contracts for difference could have a significant influence and accelerate industrial offtakers’ adoption provided they are well designed and readily available.
