Lithuanian Hydrogen Energy Association reposted this
During the European Hydrogen Week, the EU Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER) relesed its first hydrogen monitoring report that serves the purpose of monitoring the emerging hydrogen market, in virtue of the recently revised and adopted Hydrogen and Decarbonised Gas package. We agree with the main recommendations for policy makers to make the market grow and mature in the coming years however, our take on #hydrogen infrastructure differs significantly from the ACER conclusions. While we welcome the fact that infrastructure is indeed at the heart of this report, the incremental approach proposed in it might prove highly counterproductive and way too cautious. We need to build an integrated #EUHydrogenBackbone, instead of having a progressive, and bottom-up method that might actually end up by slowing down the development of the #hydrogenmarket by creating even riskier environment for both producers and consumers of #cleanhydrogen. The achievement of the European regulatory targets is very much dependent on the availability of infrastructure to move hydrogen across Europe and from abroad. This is one the key messages of our latest #CleanH2Monitor (read it herehttps://lnkd.in/eP_kQ9hf). Furthermore, several studies (including our recently published Hydrogen Infrastructure Report: https://lnkd.in/eTNzs58h) converge to the conclusion that two infrastructures are cheaper than one when operating a decarbonised system, and that the #decarbonisation of the electricity system will be exceedingly expensive if not complemented with a hydrogen infrastructure. Additionally, it should not be forgotten that in Europe there are over 2 million km of gas distribution pipelines - versus 207.000 km of transmission pipelines1 (according to the lasted data from the Council of European Energy Regulators). In some countries, such as Austria and Germany 100% and 99% of the consumers respectively are connected to the DSO gas system, which differs significantly from the TSO level. It is unfortunate that the distribution part is almost entirely left out from the ACER analysis, and it should be included in future hydrogen market assessments. To conclude, infrastructure backbone at all levels will require significant financing effort, and increasing risks associated with it - by relaying on incremental growth - will make it even costlier. Governments and regulators need to be bolder on their vision of building such interconnected and optimal system, for which we need integrated planning and significant financial support at national and EU levels. For more info ➡️ https://lnkd.in/eMpgAvCn).