Hydrogen

China presented on Mar. 23 its first long-term plan for hydrogen, targeting production of green hydrogen between 100,000 and 200,000 tonnes per year by 2025, while India and Japan have agreed to expand the scope of their energy collaboration to cover solar power, clean hydrogen, electric vehicles, and battery storage. Furthermore, French gas giant Air Liquide said it want to increase research investments in hydrogen mobility and heavy-duty mobility and German electrolyzer manufacturer Sunfire raised a total of €86 million to expand its manufacturing capacity.

A US-German research group has used above-bandgap light to improve ion mobility in ceramic materials used in lithium-ion batteries and fuel cells. It found that the grain boundary conductance of gadolinium-doped cerium oxide, which is a ceramic used as a solid-state electrolyte in fuel cells, can be improved by a factor of approximately 3.5 at 250 degrees Celsius, by applying the proposed light technique.

Elsewhere, the Fraunhofer ISE research institute has unveiled a new tool for high-resolution power-to-X kinetic analysis, and German entities have signed partnership agreements with the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company.

A lack of trained personnel, slow overhaul of PV rules, and a weak electricity grid could slow the emergence of solar as a solution to diminish Romanian dependence on Russian gas. The next two winters will be critical.

Rystad Energy has joined BloombergNEF with a significant forecast for gray and blue hydrogen off the back of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. According to the analysts, the impact of the war has sent prices of fossil fuel-tied forms of hydrogen production surging, leaving the gradual but consistent downward price trend of green hydrogen now looking remarkably competitive.

The state-owned UAE clean power developer appears to have quadrupled its previously announced ambition today as it announced its $20 billion renewables portfolio rose from 10.7GW to more than 15GW last year.

Previously announced plans by the solar developer to pay a deposit to secure gas from a connected business expired on Friday and the company has now said it will focus on a form of the energy carrier powered by renewables.

Starting from this year, the scheme will also be open to green hydrogen facilities that are directly linked to wind or solar parks, and industrial electrification projects based on hybrid glass furnaces.

Vattenfall, SSAB and LKAB have reached the halfway point in the construction of a rock cavern storage facility in a coastal city in northern Sweden. The 100-cubic-meter facility is being constructed 30 meters below ground and will begin storing green hydrogen next year.

An international research group has developed a solid oxide fuel cell that may be used in vehicles. The monolith device has an active cell area of around 18 cm2 and was built through common manufacturing processes. It was found to achieve a high power density of 5.6 kW/L, which the scientists said is comparable with that of the best performing fuel cells based on ceramic anodes.