Regarding green hydrogen in Greece, until today, two research units and a small commercial electrolysis hydrogen production unit have been built, and a number of pilot/commercial hydrogen production projects have been made publicly available, as well as plans to set up hydrogen refuelling stations on a pilot commercial basis that are seeking funding from European programmes. Globally, 95 million tonnes of hydrogen were consumed in 2022, produced almost entirely from fossil fuels. Most of which were used in industrial processes, followed by refinery processes. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), the amount of ‘conventional’ hydrogen produced from fossil fuels will remain practically constant until 2030. However, within the next years, the IEA predicts a significant increase in the consumption of ‘new’ hydrogen (i.e. renewable or low-carbon hydrogen), including other uses such as transportation, which will be about 40% of global hydrogen consumption by 2030.
The European Hydrogen Strategy, adopted by the European Commission in July 2020, sets the framework for the development of green hydrogen within the European Union. Under the REPowerEU initiative, which was notified in May 2022, the objectives of this strategy have been further reinforced. The consumption of renewable hydrogen within the European Union is expected to increase to a total of 20 million tonnes by 2030, of which 10 million tonnes will be produced in the EU and 10 million tonnes will be imported from third countries.
In addition, the “Fit-for-55” legislative “package” proposed by the European Commission in July 2021 includes a large number of provisions concerning the development of renewable and low-carbon hydrogen. The revised Directive on RES includes a new binding goal for industry by 2030 that 42% of the hydrogen used will be renewable. This goal will be increased to 60% by 2035. Also included is a minimum binding goal for the consumption of non-biological renewable fuels (RFNBO) in transport of 1%. In particular, for the aviation and maritime sectors, this goal is set to be increased to 1.2%.
In June 2023, the two Delegated Acts concerning renewable hydrogen were adopted, as foreseen by the Renewable Energy Directive. Delegated Regulation 2023/1184 sets out the methodology and detailed rules regarding renewable electricity used for the production of RFNBOs, while Delegated Regulation 2023/1185 describes the methodology for calculating greenhouse gas reductions due to the use of RFNBOs. The provisions contained in the two Delegated Acts lay the basis for the establishment of a certification scheme for renewable hydrogen within the European Union.
The Alternative Fuel Infrastructure Regulation 2023/1804 has replaced the previous Alternative Fuel Infrastructure Directive. The Regulation sets minimum goals for the development of compressed hydrogen gas refuelling infrastructure for the on-road transportation.
The FuelEU Maritime Regulation 2023/1805 and the new ReFuelEU Aviation Regulation set goals for the introduction of renewable fuels in the other transportation sectors. Renewable liquid fuels in these sectors will require a corresponding scaling up of green hydrogen production.
In December 2021, the European Commission, through the Hydrogen and Degas Market Package, proposed a review of the European gas market rules. This package includes a revision of the existing Gas Market Directive and the existing Gas Market Regulation, and will set the framework for the development and regulation of a common hydrogen market within the European Union. This framework also includes detailed proposals on the regulation of hydrogen infrastructure. The European Union has also made significant amounts of funding available for renewable hydrogen. These amounts include funding under the Clean Hydrogen Partnership, Horizon Europe and the Innovation Fund. For Greece, co-funding from Horizon Europe and the Clean Hydrogen Partnership has already been approved for the creation of a small hydrogen valley in Corinth (Trieres project). This project is linked to the EPHYRA project, which will demonstrate for the first time on an industrial scale a hydrogen production facility (30 MW) from renewable energy sources.
The European Hydrogen Bank, which was established on September, 2023, will provide financial and technical support for renewable hydrogen production in Europe (through Innovation Fund subsidies), as well as for imports of renewable hydrogen from third countries. The above proposals on hydrogen, which are included in European legislation, should accordingly be transferred to Greek legislation within the next few years. In March 2023, Law 5037/2023 was adopted, which introduced the definition of green hydrogen and transposed the provisions of REDII into national law.
Also, the National Regulation for the Installation of Hydrogen Refuelling Stations (O.G. B 2570/20.04.2023) has been issued, and the green hydrogen certification body has been designated.
The development of hydrogen in Greece will be based on the following aspects:
- The needs for green hydrogen will be covered by domestic production, given Greece’s potential in renewable energy. The production will take place in locations that ensure the optimization of the overall cost, taking into account the cost of transporting the clean hydrogen to the points of consumption.
- Hydrogen will be directed as a priority to the use sectors that cannot be directly electrified, such as heavy road transport, shipping and aviation, as well as certain industrial applications (steel, cement, refineries, ammonia production, etc.).
- In shipping and aviation, the use of renewable liquid synthetic fuels of biological or nonbiological origin seems to predominate. As this sector is still under research to mature the technical and, above all, economic maturity of the technologies involved, a drastic reduction in the carbon footprint of these sectors is expected to be achieved after 2030.
- In the heavy road transport sector, the hydrogen gas fuel cell solution could be applied. At the same time, the battery industry is also conducting research to address the challenge of heavy vehicles, competing with the hydrogen solution. In this context, and in accordance with EU legislation (AFIR), hydrogen stations will be established, in principle on a pilot basis, and/or to serve in particular heavy transport (at least 26 in total by 2030), with further expansion after 2030, depending on technological developments.
- In the area of industrial applications that cannot be directly electrified, applied research on hydrogen-based solutions will be encouraged. In parallel, and while research will continue, the reduction of the carbon footprint of these sectors will be achieved through CO2 capture and storage.
- Further, hydrogen is still awaiting techno-economic maturity, in particular for uses in shipping, aviation and certain industrial applications (such as steel production). This will require the installation of additional renewable energy sources, since hydrogen production requires a large amount of ‘green’ electricity, while the production of synthetic fuels requires additional huge amounts of clean electricity. For this reason, the ESDP plan includes the installation of 3 GW of additional RES for hydrogen production by 2030. Due to the expected maturity of the technology, an exponential growth in the development of hydrogen and its derivatives is projected after 2035.
The final goals for hydrogen production are currently under investigation. However, at present, for 2030 the total green hydrogen production is estimated to be at least 0.92TWh, corresponding to an installed capacity of about 300 MW of electrolysis systems, and the aim is to concentrate the appropriate resources in combination with the creation of a hydrogen uptake chain for uses that cannot be electrified to further accelerate hydrogen production by 2030.
Total green hydrogen consumption is estimated at 63.6 TWh/year by 2050, but the largest share (around 70%) is estimated to be consumed for the production of synthetic hydrocarbons for transport use.