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In July, the European Union unveiled a hydrogen strategy that immediately captured the imagination of the renewable energy world and was hailed as the most ambitious hydrogen plan ever. The ambitious ones of the EU new strategy for hydrogen has established plans to install 40 gigawatts of electrolysers within the region’s borders and also support the development of another 40 gigawatts of green hydrogen in neighboring countries that have the capacity to export the regional power plant. The EU is an economic and political union of 27 European countries.
However, a single country could soon rival an entire regional bloc …
The Australian government has announced that it will accelerate the development of some of the world’s largest wind and solar projects aimed at producing green hydrogen.
Last week Canberra announced that it has done so awarded “major project status” to the Asian Renewable Energy Hub (AREH). The move will accelerate the development of 15,000 MW of wind and solar power to produce hydrogen and ammonia for export to the Asia-Pacific region with plans to scale up to 26,000 MW, making it the largest of its kind in the world.
Green hydrogen
AREH project director Brendan Hammond says the 15,000 MW project is AREH’s first, with plans to extend it to 26,000 MW of wind and solar hybrids that will power electrolyzers for the production of green hydrogen and green ammonia.
The first phase of the Kalbarri project aims to mix hydrogen directly with natural gas due to the challenges of transporting raw hydrogen. To illustrate its true potential, consider that at full capacity, AREH could generate up to 100 terawatt hours per year, or nearly 40% of Australia generated 265 terawatt hours last year.
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AREH has an important precedent: the UK has become one of the first countries to do so successfully implement hydrogen injection into the network, essentially mixing hydrogen gas with natural gas in a 1: 4 ratio. It might sound modest, but it’s actually the highest in Europe. A 20% volume blend allows customers to continue using their existing natural gas appliances without the need for major adjustments. ITM Power estimates that a natural gas / hydrogen blend of similar proportions distributed across the country could save up to ~ 6 million tonnes of CO2 emissions annually, comparable to taking 2.5 million cars off the road.
Australia plans to complete this phase of its green hydrogen strategy in just two years.
AREH’s second phase will involve compressing and supercooling hydrogen just like we do with LNG, and then exporting it to Asian nations such as Singapore, Korea and Japan. This phase could begin in about four years and take another three years to fully accelerate production.
The third phase of the project is actually the most exciting: using green hydrogen to produce green steel for export. The world steel industry accounts for around 7% of global carbon emissions, giving you an idea of how polluting this sector is. But more and more customers should start asking for green steel made from renewable energies in much the same way that global customers have begun to demand cleaner natural gas.
In a clear sign of the times, the French electricity company Engie SA ENGI was recently forced to do so abandon a multi-billion dollar contractt export LNG to the US due to pressure from the French government on environmental concerns. This could very well become a standard requirement for the vast fossil fuel ecosystem.
Hydrogen energy supply chain in Japan
The Hydrogen energy supply chain (HESC) is a joint Japanese-Australian project that aims to produce abundant and affordable fuel for Japan.
A large chunk of Australia’s hydrogen exports will go to Japan, a country whose mountainous terrain and extreme seismic activity make it unsuitable for developing sustainable renewable energy. The hydrogen energy supply chain will attempt to establish a durable supply of liquid hydrogen from Australia for use as a fuel in Japan. However, this hydrogen will be of the gray type because it will be extracted from lignite, also known as lignite.
The cabinet of Germany recently has pledged to invest 9 billion euros (about 10.2 billion dollars) in hydrogen technology in an attempt to decarbonise the economy and reduce CO2 emissions. The government has proposed building an electrolysis capacity of 5,000 MW by 2030 and an additional 5,000 MW by 2040 in the following decade to produce fuel hydrogen.
This is just the latest proof that the hydrogen economy is finally ready to take off, with Middle Eastern countries well endowed with high solar insolation; Coal-rich countries like Australia, gas-rich countries like Russia and highly industrialized energy importing countries in Asia and Europe all express a keen interest in hydrogen.
Overall, the hydrogen market is on track to strike $ 11 trillion. Investors love it and the game is about to find the best places to split your hydrogen money.
By Alex Kimani for Oil “
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