Nils Bruch and Michèle Knodt present paper on „A Matter of Perspective – Policy Coherence of European Hydrogen and Energy Policy“ at UACES

Nils Bruch and Michèle Knodt present paper on „A Matter of Perspective – Policy Coherence of European Hydrogen and Energy Policy“ at the UACES (University Association for Contemporary European Studies) Conference, Lille, as part of the panel „The Dynamics of Europe´s Approach to Hydrogen“ organized by Michèle Knodt, Arne Niemann, Friedrich Plank and Johannes Muntschick.

The use of renewably produced hydrogen is seen as a promising solution for decarbonising sectors that are difficult to electrify, such as industry and aviation, and as a storage medium for surplus electricity from renewable sources. The strategic guidelines for the future of hydrogen in the European Union are provided by the European Commission's „Hydrogen Strategy for a Climate Neutral Europe“, which was published in July 2020. It formulates the goal of installing electrolysers for the production of renewable hydrogen with a total capacity of 40 GW by 2030. The strategy does not give any indication of how the total capacity will be distributed among the member states, but many have already developed national hydrogen strategies. In total 17 member states have already published national strategies or roadmaps. Implementing these targets would result in a total installed capacity of over 50 GW of electrolysers. Thus, the target of the European Hydrogen Strategy would be exceeded by far. However, the European legislative framework of the renewable energy sector can put obstacles in the way of these ambitious goals. The most significant example being the delegated act of the Renewable Directive that will set the requirements for the production of renewable hydrogen. In addition, there are the consequences of the EU taxonomy that has just been discussed. The paper will deal with these conditions for the market ramp-up, which stand in the way of the ambitions of the member states.