Greening Industry Through a Transition to Hydrogen Societies
Hydrogen offers great potential to help green the energy sector and diversify the economy; however, the development of the technology needs to be supported by tailored policies and closer collaboration between governments and industry to ensure everyone can benefit from it. This is a key conclusion of a new report launched today which is based on the outcomes of an International Expert Group Meeting. This meeting, which took place at the UN COP24 climate negotiations in Poland in December 2018, focused on the current hydrogen technology advancements and the pathways to develop the climate neutral technologies. The meeting was organized by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), Poland’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Energy, and the Permanent Mission of Japan to the International Organizations in Vienna.
Hydrogen is the most abundant chemical substance in the universe. Thanks to its energy storage capabilities, it has an outstanding potential, to provide stability for the renewable energy sector, which currently lacks sufficient storage to provide grid balancing.
“We have to think about what happens if we increase renewables, such as wind and solar, EU-wide to a share of 50 to 80 per cent of our electricity production. In such scenarios there will be times when demand cannot absorb this electricity and therefore, we need to develop storage solutions. And here comes hydrogen,” said Michael Losch, Director General for Energy and Mining in the Austrian Federal Ministry for Sustainability and Tourism. “The essential new idea is to inject the hydrogen into the existing gas grid, substituting fossil natural gas with green electrolysis-produced hydrogen.”