ENTSO-E welcomes the current European common efforts to develop a new role for hydrogen in the decarbonisation of the energy system, embodied in the upcoming Hydrogen and decarbonised gas market package.

Europe is at a crossroads and needs to implement the right policy, market, and investment decisions. This will allow hydrogen to expand its production to a much larger scale, become fully decarbonised and find a cost-effective place in the electricity system.

To achieve this and enable a faster decarbonisation of the electricity system, ENTSO-E is presenting recommendations to EU policy-makers based on facts about system integration.

The paper delivers key messages on:

The new roles of hydrogen

• Hydrogen is a tool for reaching decarbonisation targets and not an end in itself. It should be benchmarked against other available options.

Where we are now and the next steps towards bigger hydrogen

• The business case to use hydrogen in an electricity system operation support function does not currently exist, but future elements need to be planned today

Planning and operating hydrogen in ‘one system of systems’

• A unified system perspective (one system view) is necessary to prevent avoidable transformation losses and establish a secure, decarbonised and cost-efficient integrated system

READ THE FULL PAPER HERE.