Fortescue Future Industries (FFI) and a group of German energy, industrial, and technology companies have developed a roadmap with recommendations for government and industry meant to support the development of a hydrogen economy and the import of green hydrogen to Europe from Australia.
The roadmap consists of a 10-point plan and a White Paper, FFI said on Friday. The action plan includes key steps that must be taken to provide the right framework conditions to ramp up the hydrogen economy such as manufacturing scale-up, design of standard hydrogen farms with standardised components and early fiscal support to ensure competitive prices.
Other necessary components outlined in the roadmap are the need for large amounts of capital at favourable rates, legislation to establish domestic green hydrogen and ammonia corridors from ports to industrial clusters and stimuli for the development of demand for green hydrogen, green fuels and green products.
The companies pointed out several actions that can be taken by the end of this year in order to develop a robust import supply chain that will enable hydrogen imports to Europe by 2024. These include setting precise standards for “green hydrogen” and adopting a clear certification scheme, designing effective support mechanisms as well as funding innovation and advanced hydrogen technology applications.
The task force, that developed the roadmap, sees industrial demand in Germany and the EU for up to 5 million tonnes per year of green hydrogen in the short term, while the total addressable market is estimated at up to 27 million tonnes per year in the long term.
The German companies in the initiative include E.on SE (ETR:EOAN), Covestro AG (ETR:1COV), Linde Plc (NYSE:LIN), Luthardt, SAP SE (ETR:SAP), Schaeffler AG (ETR:SHA), Thyssenkrupp Nucera and Thyssenkrupp Uhde.
Commenting on the roadmap, Linde's executive vice president Juergen Nowicki said: "For an industrialised nation such as Germany it is of utmost importance to secure reliable and affordable energy. Clean hydrogen has an important role to play in the energy transition, but we need to have the right framework, incentives and infrastructure in place to make it actionable as a lever to decarbonisation."
The roadmap follows the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) by FFI and E.on at the end of March on delivering up to 5 million tonnes per year of green hydrogen to Europe by 2030.
Under the partnership, the green hydrogen will be produced in Australia and distributed by E.on. The agreed amount is equivalent to about one-third of Germany's calorific energy of natural gas imports from Russia.
Choose your newsletter by Renewables Now. Join for free!
Image by Robert Bosch GmbH. All Rights Reserved.
