European Commission issued rules to increse green hydrogen production from nuclear energy

The European Commission stated today that hydrogen plays a key role in the European Green Deal to upscale the use of green hydrogen، ammonia and other renewable derivatives، therefore، the EU published this week rules which could allow some hydrogen produced in nuclear-based energy systems to count towards EU renewable energy goals so as to accelerate the de-carbonization of the energy system and greatly reduce the EU's dependence on Russian imported fossil fuels.

The European Commission: green hydrogen is central to decarbonise heavy industry

The European Commission confirmed that green hydrogen is central to Europe's plans to decarbonise heavy industry، and the rules aim to incentivise investors and industries to shift from hydrogen produced from fossil fuels، to hydrogen produced from renewable electricity.

The European Commission indicated that green hydrogen and what count as renewable energy has fuelled a dispute in recent months between France and countries such as Germany who say nuclear-based fuels should not be included as it is considered renewable energy.

The European Commission: 3 types of green hydrogen

The European Commission has now set out 3 types of green hydrogen that will count towards the renewable targets after a months-long delay amid lobbying from capitals of European Union.

These 3 types of green hydrogen that set out by the European Commission include green hydrogen from production facilities directly connected to a new renewable electricity generator، and green hydrogen that take grid power if the local electricity zone had more than an average 90% share of renewable power.

Long-term power purchase agreement with green hydrogen

The European Commission explained that the facilities can take grid power in regions that meet a low CO2 emissions limit - potentially based on nuclear - so long as the producer also signs a long-term power purchase agreement with green hydrogen and electricity provider in these regions.

The European Commission has required producers to either directly use newly installed renewable power such as green hydrogen or to support new local renewable energy projects aiming at stopping hydrogen producers sucking up existing renewable electricity capacity، which could risk driving up fossil fuel generation to meet overall energy demand.

EU countries and lawmakers have two months to object to the rules of green hydrogen

EU countries and lawmakers have two months to object to the rules which support producing green hydrogen from production facilities directly connected to a new renewable electricity generator، or these rules will enter into force، the European Commission said.

The row between countries in the EU over nuclear-based hydrogen has already delayed negotiations on the EU's new renewable energy targets including green hydrogen، the European Commission added.

The green hydrogen production to increase by 2030

The green hydrogen production is expected to increase towards 2030 with the mass rollout of large-scale electrolysers while the electricity demand now for hydrogen production is negligible، but the European Commission estimates that around 500-550 TWh of renewable electricity is needed to meet the 2030 ambition.

The European Commission has required the member states to update state aid rules to allow for dedicated support for the production of renewable hydrogen and about €10.6 billion of contributions by the member states have been approved for two Important Projects of Common European Interest (IPCEI) on green hydrogen.

Green hydrogen projects at least cost

In addition، various EU's Member States are developing competitive schemes to enable renewable and green hydrogen projects to be developed at least cost accordong to the European Commission.

European Commission: significant investments for the production of green hydrogen

The European Commission assured that significant investments for the production of green hydrogen are also being channelled through the National Recovery and Resilience Plans that more than €10 billion have been assigned so far with €4.9 billion going through IPCEIs.

The European Commission noted that 11 EU's Member States have included measures dedicated، either partly or exclusively، to green hydrogen in their RRPs، while an additional 5 EU's Member States have included measures dedicated to the green hydrogen economy more broadly such as investments in networks، mobility، and R&D&I.

The European Commission proposed these rules as legal certainty for green hydrogen project developers

The European Commission proposed these rules as they will provide legal certainty for the renewable hydrogen project developers that are interested in the latest call for the EU Innovation Fund، where a dedicated budget of €1 billion is available for projects supporting green hydrogen and electrification in many industries.

The Innovation Fund will support fixed-premium auctions for green hydrogen production، starting from now، as announced in the Green Deal Industrial Plan، the European Commission stated.

Auctions by EU for green hydrogen production

The first pilot auction has an indicative budget of €800 million and it will be followed by further auctions or other forms of support for green hydrogen production، covering the EU domestic part of the Hydrogen Bank announced by President von der Leyen in her State of the Union address last year.

The European Commission has recently allocated an additional €200 million for Hydrogen Valleys، as part of the EU plan to support the work of the Clean Hydrogen Partnership to which it provided €1 billion under Horizon Europe، matched by the same amount from industry and research partners to increase the production of green hydrogen in Europe.