biomass, oil, gas, or H20 supply chain discipline
euractiv | EU hopes to build on past experience [BWAH!] to fast-track hydrogen market, 25 Ma

With the Russian war in Ukraine, the EU is now pushing on the accelerator. In March, the EU executive announced plans for an additional 15 million tonnes of renewable hydrogen by 2030 on top of the 5.6 million tonnes previously announced in the Commission's 2020 hydrogen strategy.
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branded REPowerEU, the Commission plan will be followed up by more detailed proposals on 18 May. And hydrogen will once again be at the centre of attention.

Higher targets

According to the March proposal, two thirds of the extra hydrogen will be imported into Europe from countries like Oman, the UAE or Chile < wipes tears >, with the rest being produced in the EU. But for that to happen, the EU will have to build a competitive hydrogen market as fast as possible without scaring away investors, something the Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER) says will require a "gradual and flexible regulatory approach".

deregulation

To do this, the EU executive presented a gas package of legislation in December, which aims to establish a new hydrogen, with a dedicated infrastructure.

It won't start from scratch, however. Drawing on the lessons from past energy market overhauls, the EU executive outlined a two-step approach: before 2030, EU competition rules will be partly suspended in order to attract investors. After that date, the EU's more stringent regulations will start applying, including so-called `ownership unbundling' rules requiring network operators to be independent from energy suppliers

classification

ENNOH's role will be to promote a dedicated hydrogen infrastructure, coordinate across borders, work on interconnectors and put out technical rules.

For Europe's nascent [!] hydrogen industry, the chief concern relates to 2030 when unbundling rules will start to apply. Another key issue the certification of hydrogen depending on how it is produced - whether from fossil gas (grey hydrogen), gas with carbon capture and storage (blue hydrogen), electrolysis using renewable electricity (green hydrogen), nuclear (pink hydrogen) or from the power grid.

"Additionality"

To avoid grid congestion issues, the industry is looking at installing electrolysers as close as possible to large renewable electricity production facilities like offshore wind farms.

Other solutions are being envisaged. "For example, you could ask a country like Portugal to prove that the amount of hydrogen produced from the grid corresponds to an additional renewable source over a year. Or you could use Hydrogen GOs to prove the electricity used as input is renewable. That is doable," [industry group Hydrogen Europe sec gen Jorgo] Chatzimarkakis told EURACTIV in an interview last year.

euractiv | Commission considers easing rules on crop rotation to grow more wheat in a drought of BIBLICAL PROPORTIONS

Earlier this month, German agriculture minister Cem Özdemir called on the EU to temporarily push back the new rules on crop rotation, originally set to come into force from 2023 [!] as part of the bloc's reformed Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), by one year in order to up wheat production in the face of Russia's attack on Ukraine.

This would mean that farmers who grew wheat on a field this year could grow wheat on the same piece of land again in the coming season, allowing more space for grain production. The idea was presented to EU agriculture ministers for the first time on Tuesday (24 May) during a meeting in Brussels. ...

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