Powering up
By Mehreen
Khan
March 10,
2020
In the race
to develop zero-emission cars, electric vehicles are zooming ahead of
hydrogen-fuelled motors (see: Tesla). But the European Commission wants to help
bridge the gap.
Brussels
will today unveil its ideas for a European industrial policy that will include
setting up an EU “hydrogen alliance” to funnel public money to businesses
developing the “green” fuel. Thierry Breton, commissioner in charge of
industry, tells the Financial Times that hydrogen technology “will be
strategically important for energy independence and the future of Europe”.
The hydrogen
push is the commission’s latest attempt to help along the transition to a
climate neutral EU by 2050. But the complication with exploiting the periodic
table’s simplest element is that it must be industrially manufactured. So
“clean” hydrogen must be generated using existing sources of electricity
(renewables or natural gas). This adds to the technology’s expense and means
the uptake of hydrogen (despite rising demand) has been slow in Europe.
Can the
EU’s “alliance” prove a panacea for hydrogen? Brussels is hoping that an
existing scheme to spend billions funding battery-cell technology can be a good
model. In 2017, the commission set up a battery alliance to help Europe catch
up with market leaders in China that were supplying Europe’s nascent electric
car market with all their storage needs. The European scheme is widely
celebrated as a success and has managed to pump cash and expertise into the
sector. It has also revolutionised the way Brussels thinks about industrial
policy.
Officials
hope clean hydrogen can be next. But we’ve been here before. As the FT’s Henry
Sanderson writes, “hydrogen hype” was all the rage in the late 90s and early
2000 when the auto industry started to take alternative fuels seriously and the
US was worried about its over-reliance on Middle Eastern oil. But the industry
failed to take off.
William
Todts, executive director of campaigning group Transport & Environment,
notes there are three big problems with hydrogen: it requires expensive
infrastructure, its vehicles are more costly than other green alternatives and
the fuel itself is less competitive than rivals.
The
commission is banking on the alliance unleashing waves of cash to overcome the
cost and efficiency hurdles. In particular, Brussels wants to target the heavy
duty vehicle industry and aviation as new markets that can tap hydrogen fuel
and cut down their carbon footprint.
Kadri
Simson, energy commissioner, tells the FT that hydrogen can also solve the
problem about how to repurpose Europe’s extensive natural gas infrastructure.
In the face of fears that gas risks becoming a stranded asset, Simson thinks
gas grids can be “retrofitted and future-proofed” to one day help transport
hydrogen across the EU. “The technology is not market competitive yet and requires
investment,” she acknowledges.
So far, the
big claims for hydrogen remain untested. Experts note that even if its
potential is unleashed, it will remain less competitive than electric cars. And
Todts points out that even with huge investment, consumers such as truck
drivers and airline companies will most likely have to be forced by regulation
to buy it.
Turkish
talks
EU leaders have vowed to work with
Turkey to prevent renewed tensions at their shared border and revive a 2016
migration deal between the two that has slid close to collapse. Commission
president Ursula von der Leyen and her European Council counterpart Charles
Michel hit an upbeat note last night after talks in Brussels with Turkey’s
president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who also met Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg
earlier on Monday. But the list of tensions between Ankara and European
capitals is long and neither side is pretending yesterday’s gatherings are
anything more than a tentative start, after bitter recent disputes in areas
ranging from refugee policy to the Syria conflict and the potent combination of
the two. (FT)
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