Green hydrogen

Transferring the current global energy production from fossil sources to renewable energy sources is among the most important tasks for humanity today. Yet, it won´t be enough. Due to the electrification of sectors like mobility and other factors, global energy consumption is projected to grow by 50% by 2050. Furthermore, not all industry sectors can easily be electrified. That´s where hydrogen as a flexible energy carrier comes into play. However, as of today, hydrogen is mostly produced from fossil sources. So the challenge is clear: we need way more hydrogen and we need to produce it from 100% renewable energy sources.

In its Net Zero Scenario, the IEA (International Energy Agency) allocates the global avoidance of 60 Gt of CO₂ emissions between 2021 and 2050 to green hydrogen and hydrogen based fuels, equaling 6% of total cumulative emissions reductions. Against this background, it doesn´t come as a surprise that multiple European countries have announced hydrogen strategies within the last three years. However, in order for green hydrogen to really take off, policy makers, interest groups and the economy need to cooperate and make significant efforts to scale-up production capacities and increase the demand for green hydrogen across industry sectors and world regions, while at the same time decreasing the production cost.