Hydrogen is considered a key technology for the European energy transition towards climate neutrality. It is intended to store surplus electricity from renewable energies and provide a high energy density even for sectors that are difficult to electrify, such as the industry. However, hurdles such as high costs and lagging investment on the sup-ply and demand side as well as current uncertainties are slowing down the market ramp-up, while the current geopolitical situation is changing the framework conditions. As a result, the EU targets for hydrogen for 2030 may be difficult to achieve under the current circumstances.
In the interdisciplinary report ‘H2 Reality Check – Reappraising the EU’s H2 Strategy in a New Era of Geopolitical Disruptions’, a team from the Center for Advanced Security, Strategic and Integration Studies (CASSIS) at the University of Bonn and the Energy Eco-nomics Institute (EWI) at the University of Cologne examines techno-economic and geo-political aspects of the hydrogen market ramp-up with regard to the EU’s decarbonisa-tion targets for 2030. Based on the latest studies, the current status of the ramp-up and hurdles are presented. The report was funded by the European Climate Foundation.
