For Europe to achieve its ambitious decarbonisation targets, every mature technology will need to be applied in those areas where it contributes in the most environmentally and economically efficient manner to reducing CO2 emissions in the shortest possible timeframe. Hydrogen will have a role to play, but the question is: which one?
Renewable based electricity and direct electrification are today considered as the most cost-effective and energy efficient tool to meet Europe’s decarbonisation ambition. To connect renewable energy sources to the centers of consumption, Europacable firmly believes that hydrogen does not have a role to play as a means of an “energy carrier”. Where electricity is needed to power end consumer applications, the double conversion make it an environmentally and economically inefficient option for power transmission.
Europacable is confident that technologies used for the generation, transmission and use of so called “green hydrogen” will mature in the years ahead. Accordingly, green hydrogen may well become an important source of energy supply for applications where direct electrification is neither technically feasible nor efficient.
Europacable would like to highlight that today’s policy discussions, based on sound technical information, need to find the right balance between:
- Deploying the right, available and mature technologies now to prioritise Europe’s direct electrification
- Creating a policy framework that stimulates the R&D and the development of new technologies, including hydrogen, so as to create new technology options to empower Europe’s decarbonisation