EU set to launch world's first hydrogen bank▼

SciTech

Published 20d ago

<p>The idea is to make €800 million available from European funds to help the industry and at the same time, incentivise private investment.</p> <p>Green hydrogen is expected to play a key role in decarbonising the EU so that it can achieve its emission reduction goals by 2050.</p> <p>"We would like clearly to demonstrate that we are the global leader if it comes to the use of these new technologies," Commission Executive Vice President, Maroš Šefčovič, said in an interview on Monday.</p> <p>"(And) That we can indeed replace fossil fuels with green hydrogen, that we can produce steel with very low or no carbon footprint and actually that we can also have cars, buses, trains, even planes and ships visually powered by green hydrogen, which is not polluting."</p> <p>In 2022, hydrogen accounted for less than 2% of the bloc’s energy consumption and was primarily used to produce chemical products, such as plastics and fertilisers.</p> <p>The priority for the EU is to develop renewable hydrogen and it aims to produce 10 million tonnes and import another ten million by 2030.</p> <div class="widget widget--type-tweet widget--size-medium widget--align-center"> <div class="widget__wrapper"> <div class="widget__ratio widget__ratio—auto"> <div class="widget__contents"> <figure class="widget__figure"> <div class="widget__tweet" data-tweet-id="1726551747500335157"></div> </figure> </div> </div> </div> </div> <p>During the bloc&#039;s Hydrogen Week in Brussels, which started on Monday, the sector will try to join the dots between the European Commission, policymakers, researchers, and industry.</p> <p>"The energy crisis that Europe has faced so far, especially due to Russia&#039;s invasion of Ukraine, has shown how dependent we are. Hydrogen can be produced in Europe, mainly in countries that have a lot of wind and a lot of solar," Jorgo Chatzimarkakis, CEO of Hydrogen Europe, told Euronews. Source