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

Reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the short/medium term is one of the main goals that the international community has set itself. 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. But 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. Among the solutions that are being evaluated for the storage of energy surplus, there are: the accumulation in batteries, the production of compressed air and the production of hydrogen that appear to be the most suitable solutions to associate with the water accumulation (pumped hydro). Concerning the hydrogen, 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. However Hydrogen is not only an electric power storage opportunity, it is also a fuel and a raw material for some industrial productions. Looking at this versatility, what will be the impact on the energy and fuel markets of large scale hydrogen production from RES? Here a review of the recent years literature regarding the economic and social impact linked to the production of hydrogen from RES is presented. The purpose of this research activity was 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 excess RES power to hydrogen. We deducted 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.