'Europe will continue to lead green hydrogen, even as the US lags behind': Von der Leyen
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen has pledged to accelerate policies to scale up the green hydrogen sector, in a pre-recorded speech at the Renewable Hydrogen Summit in Brussels that seemed designed to court developers back from the increasingly uncertain US market.
She highlighted that 11 large-scale renewable hydrogen projects across the EU have already reached a final investment decision (FID) and started construction. “To put that into perspective, the United States saw just two such decisions during the same period.”
Von der Leyen also praised final investment decisions on more than 2GW of green H2 facilities in the past year — quadruple what has been installed in Europe to date — while adding that investment in 2024 would grow by 140% and represent a third of global investment into electrolysers.
“So why is Europe leading? We set clear targets,” she said. The EU has set out a broad ambition to produce ten million tonnes a year of hydrogen domestically by 2030, as well as importing another ten million tonnes a year to meet demand by the start of next decade.
But while this strategy has been criticised as unrealistic and overly ambitious without being legally binding, the EU has also set targets for 42% of industrial H2 to be renewable and 1% of transport energy demand to come from green hydrogen or its derivatives by 2030.
Member states are required to transpose these into law by May 2025, with the EU issuing guidelines in September to aid in policymaking.
“If done right, this will be a game-changer, unlocking demand across the entire value chain,” said von der Leyen, noting that the European Commission is working closely with member states and potential major offtakers in steel, chemicals, transport and energy storage to identify priorities.
“We want to prioritise the infrastructure needed to connect large-scale hydrogen projects with end users,” she said, referring to plans to build out or repurpose pipelines to transport H2 produced in areas with strong wind and solar resource, such as Iberia and northern Sweden, to industrial centres, particularly in Germany.
“We will tap into Europe's vast renewables potential and bring it to our industries to help them decarbonise.
“This would significantly lower prices, not only for clean steel, cement, fuel and plastics, but also for fertilisers, glass, and a range of other hard-to-decarbonise sectors. The competitive benefits to European industry could be immense.”
Von der Leyen suggested that by 2030, the price of a mid-sized electric car built with green steel would be almost the same price as a car built with steel produced from a coal-fired blast furnace.
However, this is likely to be partly because free allowances on the Emissions Trading System for steelmaking will be phased out between 2026 and 2034, in addition to green hydrogen getting cheaper as projects scale up.
“As demands shift towards cleaner solutions, companies investing in renewable hydrogen today will hold a clear market advantage,” she said.
Von der Leyen confirmed that the second round of the European Hydrogen Bank, which offers a fixed payment per kilogram of hydrogen in order to support projects in reaching FID, will be held in December with a budget of €1.2bn ($1.3bn).
“And we have added a critical new element: a clause that specifically encourages the use of equipment from European companies, because they are the very innovators that pioneered renewable hydrogen tech in the first place,” von der Leyen said, referring to a rule that only 25% of a project’s equipment can be made in China.
“This secures Europe's energy independence. And this creates good jobs here in Europe.”
She concluded: “Rome was not built in a day, and neither will a world-leading, climate-neutral European economy. But together, step by step, we are building it. And the European Commission is fully committed to staying the course.”
Source:HydrogenInsight