Europe has adopted rules for green hydrogen

The European Commission has adopted long-awaited rules for how and when hydrogen can count towards the EU’s climate targets.

The new rules envisage that the electrolysers to produce hydrogen will have to be connected to new renewable electricity production to count as renewable. To make sure hydrogen production is not diverting renewable energy away from the grid, the rules say green hydrogen can only use “additional” amounts of renewable electricity that would otherwise not be used. EU green hydrogen production will have to be matched by additional renewable energy production on an hourly basis. The act requires proof that renewable hydrogen is only produced when and where sufficient renewable energy is available, and from 2038, that the renewable energy installations they are getting their electricity from are no older than 36 months.

The Commission has also devised a methodology to calculate greenhouse gas emissions savings from green hydrogen and its associated fuels (which can contain carbon), taking into account the full life cycle. The emissions savings must be more than 70% compared with fossil fuels to count toward the EU’s renewable energy targets.

However, all these conditions will only kick in from 2028 at the earliest. The EU’s rules for green hydrogen – domestically produced and imported – that can count towards its targets will actually be relaxed between now and then, and hydrogen from electricity produced from coal and gas could count in the interim. This is designed to stimulate the near-term roll-out of electrolysers, says the Commission. The NGO Transport & Environment (T&E), while welcoming the new rules, worries that the free-for-all over the next five years will spur a gold rush mentality.

European hydrogen industry has welcomed the delegated acts and says they need to be urgently ratified by the European Parliament and member states.