Innovation Trends in Electrolyzers for Hydrogen Production

Electrolysis of water, using renewable electricity, is the sustainable option to produce green hydrogen as an attractive low-carbon energy carrier. To respond to the growing demand for renewables-based hydrogen, an extraordinary expansion of the market for electrolyzers is needed linked to a significant capacity increase in the manufacture and deployment of electrolyzers. A rapid reduction in electrolyzer system costs is essential and technology innovation is crucial to this end.

According to IRENA, investment costs for electrolyser plants can be reduced by 40% in the short term and 80% in the long term through key strategies such as improved electrolyser design …

Global Hydrogen Trade to Meet the 1.5°C Climate Goal: Technology Review of Hydrogen Carriers

Hydrogen can be transported over long distances by pipeline or by ship. This report compares the transport of hydrogen by pipeline as compressed gaseous hydrogen with three forms used in shipping pathways: ammonia, liquid hydrogen and liquid organic hydrogen carriers (LOHC). The focus is on hydrogen transport rather than the transport of commodities made using hydrogen, noting that ammonia can be both a hydrogen carrier and directly used as a feedstock or fuel for different applications. Carbon-containing carriers (such as methanol or methane) are excluded.

This is part of a report trilogy focusing on global hydrogen trade in a 1.5°C …

Clean Energy 101: The Colors of Hydrogen

Hydrogen has an essential role to play in the global effort to decarbonize the economy. How big a piece in the puzzle it is and where it best fits are two questions top of mind for business leaders and policymakers. To help inform this discussion, RMI will be publishing a new article series to help dispel misinformation about hydrogen. To start us off, this article explains what hydrogen is and where it can fit in the energy system.…

Green Hydrogen Guidebook

The Green Hydrogen Guidebook is designed to increase understanding of green hydrogen production and distribution, safety, applications and use cases, value proposition, barriers and challenges, policy and regulatory drivers, and recommendations for market acceleration.

Most importantly, the Guidebook offers a vision for a green hydrogen future and details inspiring global examples of large-scale projects already underway.…

Assessing The Viability Of Hydrogen Proposals: Considerations For State Utility Regulators And Policymakers

Natural gas and electric utilities across the United States are increasingly pursuing pilot projects to blend hydrogen with natural gas for various end-uses, including as a heating fuel in buildings or for power generation. However research shows these projects would increase consumer costs, exacerbate air pollution, and cause safety risks while minimally reducing greenhouse gases. By comparison, electrification is a proven, low-cost alternative that poses no safety or health risks and can rapidly cut building emissions. And in the power sector, increasing renewable electricity is a much more efficient clean energy pathway. State utility regulators and policymakers should require a …

Decarbonizing End-use Sectors: Green Hydrogen Certification

Green hydrogen – hydrogen produced from renewable energy – will play a key role in the energy transition, and particularly in the decarbonization of hard-to-abate sectors.

The deployment and uptake of green hydrogen, and the development of national, regional and international green hydrogen markets will depend on the establishment and wide acceptance of tracking systems. Such instruments are necessary to track attributes across the entire value chain, create transparency, boost demand and encourage transferability.

The IRENA Coalition for Action brief on Green Hydrogen Certification, led by the members of the Decarbonizing End-Use Sectors Working Group, provides an overview of technical …

Green Hydrogen for Industry: A Guide to Policy Making

The industrial sector is the leading hydrogen consumer, with 87.1 million tonnes of hydrogen consumed in 2020. Hydrogen is used in refineries, chemical industry, and steelmaking, all categorized as “hard to abate” sectors. This large and centralized demand is critical for developing a green hydrogen sector.

However, several barriers impede green hydrogen’s full contribution to the industrial sector, including cost, technical, policy, lack of demand and carbon leakage risk. Policy makers can adopt industrial policies that address barriers and oblige or support a change from fossil fuel dependency of hard to abate sectors. An urgent task given the long lifespans …

Blue Hydrogen: Technology Challenges, Weak Commercial Prospects, and Not Green

This presentation examines blue hydrogen and what it requires, infrastructure, commercial markets, and technologies.…

Recommendations for Implementing a Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub Program

IIJA included multiple hydrogen related authorizations and appropriations including $1 billion for a Clean Hydrogen Electrolysis Program, $500 million for a Clean Hydrogen Manufacturing program, $8 billion for Regional Clean Hydrogen Hubs, and a  reauthorization of DOE’s hydrogen activities with no appropriated funding. IIJA is the first time the DOE’s hydrogen activities have been reauthorized since the Energy Policy Act of 2005; this reorientation reflects the modern understanding of the future of hydrogen. Hydrogen is a decarbonization tool that can be utilized in multiple energy sectors, acting as both a chemical and an energy carrier. The regional clean hydrogen hubs …

Geopolitics of the Energy Transformation: The Hydrogen Factor

As countries around the world rally behind net zero targets, hydrogen is increasingly seen as a missing piece of the energy transformation puzzle to decarbonise harder-to-abate sectors. The possible pathway on which hydrogen might evolve still involves many uncertainties. With the growing momentum to establish a global hydrogen market comes the need for a deeper understanding of its broader effects, including geopolitical aspects. IRENA has carried out an in-depth analysis of the geopolitics of hydrogen as part of the work of the Collaborative Framework on the Geopolitics of Energy Transformation (CF-GET). The report builds on IRENA’s substantial body of work …