5 reasons why we need hydrogen (but not too much and only the right colour)
Hydrogen is a much-hyped future fuel for almost everything. From home heating to aviation, many (and not just the hydrogen industry) tout its benefits. In this blog, I will attempt to separate some of the myths from the hype and bring some rationality to the debate.
1. Hydrogen needs to be green
There are many different ways to produce hydrogen but the only one that makes sense is green hydrogen: i.e. producing hydrogen from renewable resources.
I won’t go into all the different potential ways to make it here but currently, most hydrogen is “grey” – made from fossil gas. Blue hydrogen, made from fossil gas but with carbon capture and storage, is often promoted by the oil and gas industry as a climate-friendly fuel. And indeed, if all the carbon could be captured from not just the hydrogen production process but also the supply chain, then this would be an environmentally friendly way to produce hydrogen. Unfortunately, to date high rates of capture have been elusive and definitely not done at scale.
The only truly green way to produce hydrogen that we know of is producing it from renewable energy such as solar, wind and hydro – aka green hydrogen.
2. Hydrogen is really inefficient for everything
It’s really important to point out that hydrogen is a terrible idea for most sectors! While I am going to go on and point to sectors that need hydrogen to decarbonise, the reality is that it is an incredibly inefficient use of resources to produce hydrogen.
If you can reduce the need for energy in the first place, that is always the best environmental solution. Second, using electricity directly (rather than turning it into hydrogen and sometimes even converting that hydrogen again into another fuel) is always more efficient. This is one of the reasons why hydrogen cars are such a terrible idea when we could use the electricity directly in electric vehicles.
But there are some sectors for which we can’t use electricity directly because of their large energy demand – and these include aviation and shipping. Which leads me neatly to…
3. There’s a Green Hydrogen Gap in shipping and aviation
As I argued in the Financial Times last month, all pathways to truly sustainable fuels for the shipping and aviation sectors require green hydrogen. That means the sector either using green hydrogen directly as a fuel or producing fuels that have green hydrogen as a key component such as methanol, ammonia or e-kerosene. That is why we created the SASHA Coalition – the Skies and Seas Hydrogen-fuels Accelerator Coalition – to bring shipping and aviation together to ensure policy is put in place to get that green hydrogen to those sectors.
Our recent report revealed that currently there is a lack of policy supporting the production of green hydrogen, which is slowing down demand and discouraging investment, creating a “Green Hydrogen Gap”.
Projections show that hydrogen production is behind where it needs to be for the Paris Agreement temperature goals to be met, mainly due to a lack of guaranteed demand. If the aviation and shipping sectors are to have the hydrogen they need, they will need to send clear, unambiguous demand signals to green hydrogen producers as soon as possible. But without legislation, industry will have to take on this cost voluntarily.
4. Steel should also be prioritised
But aviation and shipping are not the only sectors that need green hydrogen, steel is another.
Steel is one of the most energy-intensive industries – responsible for around 8% of annual global greenhouse gas emissions and is a sector which almost everyone can agree has a very robust use case for hydrogen and should be prioritised to get it.
However again, there is a lack of policy supporting the roll out of green hydrogen to the steel industry and a recent report showed that 70% of planned steel production projects are still being built using fossil fuels.
Meanwhile, other industries are already being looked at by governments for hydrogen and without stronger interventions and stronger policy, there is a danger that the small amount of hydrogen available will go to sectors that really don’t need it, such as home heating. The graphic below from our Green Hydrogen Gap report illustrates where hydrogen is absolutely necessary and where it is just one of many solutions.
5. Why we don’t need too much green hydrogen
Despite the soundbites, home heating is a terrible idea for the use of hydrogen. Using hydrogen rather than electricity directly is a very inefficient use of the limited hydrogen supply available – but sadly it is something that the UK government is considering.
Heat pumps provide a more efficient route to decarbonising most buildings. And interestingly, a recent investigation by Sky News showed that consumers are being given potentially misleading information on “hydrogen-ready” boilers.
At Opportunity Green we just filed several complaints to the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority against cruise companies for selling fossil gas as “green” and “clean” so we’ll be watching what happens in the home heating space very closely.
Green hydrogen is an extremely nuanced and technical discussion. Beware anyone who says “hydrogen for everything” or “never hydrogen” – it will have a role, but it must be green hydrogen and it must only go to sectors that need it. And even then, only after they have reduced their energy demand as much as possible.
The SASHA Coalition was set up to develop clear and strong messaging around the vital role of green hydrogen and DAC in the decarbonisation of the aviation and shipping sectors, and facilitate discussions between EU- and UK-based policymakers and key industry leaders. Find out more about how to join here.
