Jocelyn Timperley at Carbon Brief has interviewed the lead author, and the critics, of this new report titled “Economics of converting renewable power to hydrogen”. The research says renewable hydrogen is already proving competitive for niche, high-intensity users in Germany and Texas. Future technological improvements, combined with expected changes to subsidies and CCS requirements, can make it so for large-scale industrial users in the next 10 to 15 years. This contrasts with other research saying hydrogen produced from fossil fuels will remain cheaper, certainly within that timeframe. It’s a crucial debate: cost-competitive hydrogen from renewables will bring full decarbonisation closer, given hydrogen’s ability to compete with the energy density of oil and gas.
Energy Post 15h March 2019 read more »
