Hydrogen and the Energy Transition: An Illusion or A Solution?
To give light on the potential of Hydrogen to drive the Energy Transition, we invited Dr. Victor Nian, an expert in energy and sustainability strategies with 15 years of experience in energy and technology fields.
Here, he provided an overview of how hydrogen can enable a transition to a cleaner, low-carbon energy system and cited challenges and opportunities for its large-scale development and implementation.
(This interview with Dr. Victor Nian was first published on TechnologyCatalogue.com. You can find the full blog here.)
Hydrogen, when produced from renewable energy, is seen as a good alternative to fossil fuels and believed to offer huge help in decarbonising sectors such as transport and other major energy-consuming industries.
According to the European Commission (2021), renewable hydrogen can play a key role in industrial processes as well as in transport (particularly those operating trucks hauling large loads and travelling long distances) and electricity sectors. To support the development of hydrogen in Europe, the European Commission proposed “to establish a market for hydrogen, create the right environment for investment, and enable the development of dedicated infrastructure, including for trade with third countries.” (European Commission 2, 2021)
To give light on the potential of Hydrogen to drive the Energy Transition, we invited Dr. Victor Nian, an expert in energy and sustainability strategies with 15 years of experience in energy and technology fields. Here, he provided an overview of how hydrogen can enable a transition to a cleaner, low-carbon energy system and cited challenges and opportunities for its large-scale development and implementation.
Dr. Nian is advisor to private and public organisations on strategic energy issues, especially in nuclear, hydrogen and clean energy technology development. He was previously a Senior Research Fellow of the Energy Studies Institute, National University of Singapore where he was the go-to person on net-zero carbon strategies, sustainable technology pathways, nuclear energy, hydrogen economy, CCUS (carbon capture, utilisation, and sequestration), and maritime decarbonisation.
Read his insights below.
What is the potential of Hydrogen in enabling a transition to a cleaner, low-carbon energy system?
Hydrogen is a clean and carbon-free form of hydrogen on its own, so hydrogen can help decarbonise the global energy sector. From a technical point of view, hydrogen can potentially play a significant role in enabling the global energy transition pathway towards a low-carbon or even a net-zero carbon energy system.
The earth is well endowed with one of the main sources of hydrogen, water — the ocean. However, the present challenge is to recover hydrogen using carbon-free energy. The same is true for the entire hydrogen value chain in order for hydrogen to truly qualify as a low-carbon energy. With the growing momentum in the global research and development (R&D) effort, and the urgency to materialise the carbon-neutral targets around the world, hydrogen could have a significant role in enabling the transition towards low-carbon energy system
How does hydrogen help in ensuring energy accessibility, affordability and reliability globally while reducing the use of fossil fuels?
The idea of hydrogen as a clean energy to address energy accessibility, affordability and reliability would depend on the position of the country in the hydrogen supply chain.
To hydrogen importing countries, arguably, hydrogen can provide diversification of the fuel mix thereby improving energy security and stability if the local infrastructure allows economical utilisation of hydrogen. Although it is unfortunately an expensive fuel option for the moment, several global studies seem to suggest that the cost of hydrogen production can fall rapidly through industrial scale project development.
To hydrogen producing countries, especially those producing hydrogen from renewable and/or nuclear energy, producing hydrogen along the lines of “power-to-gas” can serve as a form of energy storage to improve the utilisation of these carbon-free energy sources. However, the counter argument is that it would be more efficient and economical to utilise such carbon-free electricity directly with the help of battery energy storage than having an additional step of electrolysis to produce hydrogen.
Read the full interview here.
