Renewable hydrogen could contribute around 20% of global energy in 2050. Renewable power production will predominantly be through hydroelectric, wind, and solaroutes. Specialty gases and high purity industrial gases play a central role in enabling solar cell production for solar power generation. It is one of the stand-out industrial gases growth opportunities for the coming decade.
2020 was the year that the world became familiar with the concept of gigawatt hydrogen electrolyser projects. It was not so long ago that there was excitement about 10 MW electrolyser ‘demonstration projects’. A gigawatt is two orders of magnitude bigger than that. When examining the top 10 proposed renewable hydrogen electrolyser schemes, eight of these will be supplied with a mix of wind and solar power. Only the two projects in northern Europe where the wind blows strong, but the sun does not always shine, are exclusively wind-powered.
Six out of the top 10 projects are in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region. Of those, five are in Australia, and the sixth is in China. These projects will be in regions where the wind and solar intensity combine to yield the optimum conditions for renewable power generation. This is the key to an economically attractive renewable hydrogen project. The benefit of minimising the input costs of power to the electrolyser far outweigh the hydrogen distribution costs.
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