Hydrogen from RES and the energy market. A review of recent literature and addresses

Reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the short/medium term is an international commitment. In particular Europe committed itself to reducing Green House Gas (GHG) emissions to 80-95% below 1990 levels by 2050. Renewable energy sources (RES) play a fundamental role in achieving this goal. In this context, the policies of the main industrialized countries of the world are oriented towards increasing the shares of electricity produced from RES, sometime looking at 100% electricity from RES. Increasing RES penetration introduces some issues in balancing the electricity grid, like the use of the energy surplus and the need to strengthen the grid. Concurrently the introduction of Hydrogen as fuel for transportation is envisaged as the best solution for a green transportation. Moreover, hydrogen appear to be the most suitable solutions to associate with the water accumulation (pumped hydro) for the storage of RES energy surplus, together with the accumulation in batteries and the production of compressed air. Finally, recent researches highlight that the efficiency of hydrogen storage technologies have lower performance compared to advanced lead acid batteries on a DC to DC basis, while the cost of Hydrogen storage is competitive with batteries and could be competitive with CAES and pumped hydro in locations that are not favourable for these technologies. This shows that, once the optimal efficiency rate is reached, the production of hydrogen from RES will be a viable and competitive solution. Hydrogen is not only an electric power storage opportunity, and a fuel for reducing the transportation pollution. It is also a raw material having many industrial applications. Looking at this versatility, what will be the impact on the energy and fuel markets of large scale hydrogen production from RES? Moreover, looking at the literature seems that the start of hydrogen economy is strictly linked to Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles penetration and Electric Grid storage needs. Are we sure that does not exist an alternative market? A market that can have large growth trends from now to the next future and where it is possible to sell and purchase the hydrogen produced by RES. Here are reported the preliminary results of a study that starting from previous two questions was addressed to identify the aspects that have not yet been explored or which must be further investigated in order to have a broader and more concrete vision of the possible changes that can occur in the energy market by exploiting the conversion of RES power to hydrogen. Furthermore, in order to define the application aspects about the installation and operation of the plants for the production of hydrogen, it were analyzed the different legal and administrative processes in over twenty EU Countries, with specific regards to the permitting process and requirements. First results have found that the production of hydrogen from RES will certainly have an important economic impact especially in the fuel sector, leading to the creation of a new market and a new supply chain that will change the physiognomy of the entire energy market. Moreover it seems that the production of Hydrogen from RES power can be remunerative today, without attending the large scale commercialisation of FCEV.