If the EU is going to drive more than half a trillion dollars worth of hydrogen investment over the coming decades, it will need to get investors onside. The European Investment Bank has surveyed financiers to find out what they want.
With an estimated 500 TWh of renewable electricity needed to produce the 10 million tons per year of clean hydrogen wanted by the European Union by 2030, the recent promise to ramp up European electrolyzer production capacity could give a boost to solar developers grappling with sluggish permitting regimes.
A rapid ramping up of deployment would have little impact on the electricity price during summer, when air conditioning drives demand to its annual peak in the Canadian province, but it would bring hefty savings on the annual gas generation bill, even before carbon levies are factored in.
With the nation having operated seven pilot programs since 2011, a national scheme started trading on Friday, although the first day’s average carbon price of around €6.70 per ton of emissions was significantly below the €50/ton levels currently being seen in Europe.
With the EU carbon price sat at record highs of around €50/ton, the authors of a report into the policies needed to drive a clean hydrogen economy in Europe say the storage medium won’t compete with its fossil fuel powered version even if carbon allowances cost four times that level.
We will need 10.7 TW of clean energy generation capacity this decade to stay on track with the most ambitious of the climate change paths agreed in Paris, which would include plenty of solar investment and jobs, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency.
Electricity bill payers in nations as diverse as Germany, Greece, India and China should be aware new solar projects can now generate electricity cheaper for them than legacy coal and gas-fired plants.
Emissions permits are selling at around €50 per ton, completing a rally from last year’s Covid-driven slump faster than expected by business respondents to the 2021 Refinitiv Carbon Market Survey.
Carbon price levied on imported goods should be linked to level set by the bloc’s emissions trading system and should cover the power sector by 2023, according to members of the European Parliament’s environment committee.
European renewables, including Spanish solar, made big gains as energy demand recovered before the second wave of Covid infections. Nuclear was a notable loser, in part because clean energy volumes in the north of the continent drove down power prices sufficiently to make reactors uncompetitive.
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