The European Commission’s hydrogen plan is ‘unsustainable’, green group Transport & Environment (T&E) has said.
T&E has accused the Commission of caving into industry pressure to relax rules for green hydrogen production, meaning hydrogen developed in the next four years will be allowed to use electricity from coal and gas. Combined with increased demand for electricity to make the new hydrogen, this will make the energy grid dirtier and put pressure on household energy bills, T&E said.
“The proposal relaxes the rules to such an extent that so-called renewable hydrogen can be produced initially with gas and coal-fired electricity,’’ Electricity and Energy Manager at T&E, Geert Decock said. ‘‘While hydrogen is badly needed to decarbonise shipping and aviation, without additional renewables tied to hydrogen targets, the Commission’s plan may well end up doing more harm than good.”
Earlier on Thursday, the Commission issued a directive stating: renewable liquid and gaseous transport fuels of non-biological origin are important for increasing the share of renewable energy in sectors that are expected to rely on gaseous and liquid fuels in the long term, such as maritime and aviation. As a principle, liquid and gaseous fuels of nonbiological origin that are produced from electricity are considered renewable only when the electricity is renewable. It further said that renewable electricity may be supplied by an installation that is directly connected to the installation (typically an electrolyser) that produces renewable liquid and gaseous transport fuels of non-biological origin or may come directly from the grid. The Commission’s full proposal can be read HERE.