In its position paper, Hydrogen Europe states that meeting the Fit for 55 targets will require significant upscaling of manufacturing capacities for equipment such as electrolysers in the EU. 

 On May 5, it was revealed that the European Commission and 20 electrolyser manufacturers had signed a joint declaration to enable electrolyser production in the union to see a capacity of 25GW per year by 2025. 

Read more: Hydrogen in Europe: ‘Now is the time to remove all obstacles’ 

Hydrogen Europe said, in addition to electrolysers, infrastructure to allow transportation, distribution and storage for hydrogen will need to be developed and retrofitted quickly. 

The organisation added, “New investments in any gas import terminals and pipeline should be future-proved, hydrogen ready.” 

Underpinning this, Hydrogen Europe have built their recommendations on three key pillars:

1. Increasing hydrogen market demand and providing industry visibility is needed. 

Renewable Fuels of Non-Biological Origins (RFNBOs) should reduce its fossil fuel dependency across industry, transport, power, and heating.  

Also, defining all types of hydrogen and bullet proofing the methodologies to calculate their carbon footprints is high in Hydrogen Europe’s recommendation. It makes clear, low-carbon hydrogen should be defined in 2023.  

The paper says the early nature of the hydrogen sector should be factored into the Hydrogen and Decarbonised Gas Package. The lack of infrastructure could see issues with transmission, distribution, and storage of hydrogen. 

Additionally, allowing simple and quick procedures for renewable hydrogen projects as part of the Industrial Emissions Directive would encourage and speed up the process of the energy transition.  

Clarity on RFNBOs certification must be provided that can be recognised and used at a global level. Hydrogen Europe recommend using a single methodology to calculate green-house gas (GHG) emissions and life cycle assessment (LCA) of hydrogen. 

2. Investment for a strong European electrolyser and components manufacturing base

Hydrogen Europe believes the European commission should accelerate the approval of Important Projects of Common European Interest (IPCEI) at a national level. 

There should also be support for electrolyser manufacturing to ensure scalability, in the form of both National and European schemes focusing on reducing investment risk and establishing the serial production of electrolysers not limited to specific technologies.  

As well as ongoing reviews of the General Block Exemption Regulation, the European Commission should consider making technology suppliers eligible for assistance.  

Finally, the European Investment Bank and the European Commission should allow mechanisms for a fast-track process to approve the loans process for needed infrastructure and feasibility studies. 

3. Internal dimension

To support the import of large volumes of renewable hydrogen necessary to meet targets laid out in the REPowerEU communication, the European Union will need to build strong and resilient energy partnerships across the globe. 

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