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The green hydrogen market has seen plenty of stumbles ever since innovators, investors, and governments began exploring the idea of deploying renewable electricity to push hydrogen gas from water instead of extracting it from natural gas or coal. Nevertheless, interest runs high especially in Europe, where a domestic green hydrogen industry is emerging along with multiple wheels in motion to establish points of entry from North Africa, North America, and Ukraine.
Green Hydrogen & The Ukraine Connection
The common denominator, of course, is Russian President Vladimir Putin, who single-handedly motivated the governments of Europe to stop depending on Russian gas after he ordered his armies to invade Ukraine in February of 2022.
Even as the unprovoked attack upended life in Ukraine, plans were under way to leverage the nation’s vast wind and solar energy resources for electrolysis systems, to produce green hydrogen for export to Europe. A healthy green industry would help Ukraine make the case for admission to the European Union as a contributor to the economy, not a supplicant in need of assistance.
CleanTechnica caught up with the action after Ukraine Special Representative of the Minister of Foreign Affairs on Economic Diplomacy, Oleksandr Riepkin, took note of the potential for leveraging solar energy in an op-ed.
“Riepkin noted that the southern cities of Zaporizhzhia, Mykolayiv, Odesa and Kherson share the same level of sunshine as Italy, if not more, so he pitched a plan for producing green hydrogen from water,” CleanTechnica observed (read the whole op-ed here).
Riepkin penned the op-ed back in June of 2022, and plans for the Ukraine-EU Hydrogen Corridor have firmed up since then. Earlier today, key stakeholders signed a formal Memorandum of Understanding to that effect, including Gas TSO of Ukraine, Stadtwerke München, Wien Energie, Open Grid Europe, bayernets, NET4GAS, eustream, CWP Europe, Hydrogen Ukraine, and UDPR Hydrogen, among others.
This development comes just a few weeks after the scheduled expiration of a gas transmission agreement between Russia and Ukraine. The agreement predated the war and was set to end on January 1 of this year. Ukraine declined to renew the agreement for obvious reasons.
Conclusion of the agreement has stopped the Russian firm Gazprom from transiting its gas through Ukraine to supply Moldova, Slovakia, Austria, and Italy.
Green Hydrogen & The US Connection
As reported by the news organization UKRInform, the plan is to produce green hydrogen in Ukraine and repurpose the existing pipeline network in Europe to supply off-takers in Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Austria, and Germany.
Now that US President Trump has followed through on his pledge to crush renewable energy stakeholders here in the US, it’s also worth noting that investors will simply pack up and invest in new job-creating ventures elsewhere. US-based stakeholders with a global footprint have already spotted rich opportunities for renewable energy development in Ukraine. For example, UKRInform lists the Bill Gates-backed investor organization Breakthrough Energy and the US firm McKinsey & Company among supporters of the Ukraine-EU hydrogen project.
Additionally, the US financial firm BlackRock has been instrumental in planning a $15 billion fund for the reconstruction of Ukraine, along with JP Morgan. As reported last year, neither firm is collecting a fee for its advisory services.
On top of that, the US Department of Energy is credited with advising energy planners in Ukraine on a grid modernization and resiliency plan prior to the Russian invasion, enabling the the nation to detach itself from Russia and coordinate with the European grid within a matter of weeks following Putin’s ill-fated attempt to gain control of the Ukrainian government in Kyiv on February 22 of 2022.
UKRInform cites GTSOU CEO Dmytro Lyppa, who calls the Ukraine-EU project “a testament to our commitment to sustainable energy and regional cooperation.”
For the record, water electrolysis is not the only alternative to natural gas. Renewable hydrogen can also be extracted from biomass. UKRInform reminds everyone that last February Ukraine and the EU signed a Memorandum of Strategic Partnership covering biomethane as well as hydrogen and other synthetic gases.
No More Green Hydrogen For The US
So, where does this leave renewable energy investors in the US? Not in a happy place, that’s for sure. Some were counting on the $7 billion Regional Clean Hydrogen Hubs program to kickstart the domestic green hydrogen industry, but that’s an open question now. The program was administered by the Energy Department with funding from the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The law stipulated a carveout benefiting natural gas stakeholders, but the main idea was to diversify the domestic hydrogen supply chain and leverage local resources to coordinate producers with transporters, storage facilities, and off-takers. (see lots more Hydrogen Hubs background here).
The Energy Department put the finishing touches on the program in the waning months of the Biden administration. Now everything is up in the air until the courts sort out whether or not President Trump has the authority to screech federal renewable energy programs to a halt by executive order.
That’s too bad for investors in Texas, who were counting on the Gulf Coast Hydrogen Hub to provide a foothold in Europe’s emerging green hydrogen market. Sure, producers in Texas can still squeeze hydrogen from natural gas and export that stuff, but they can’t count on the European market. Ukraine is not the only nation with big export plans in the works.
A quick search of the Intertubes reveals that Canada is laying plans to export green hydrogen to Europe through Belgium, and the Sultanate of Oman is working on an agreement to use Amsterdam as a port of entry for its home grown green hydrogen.
Meanwhile, the European Commission is supporting the SouthH2 plan for importing green hydrogen from Algeria and Tunisia, with Italy being the port of entry for markets in Austria and Germany. As with the Ukraine corridor, the SouthH2 pipeline will repurpose existing transportation networks.
Aside from imports, stakeholders in Europe are busy establishing regional green hydrogen hubs of their own, and investors from outside of Europe are also taking note. The UAE firm Masdar, for example, is partnering with the French firm Lhyfe on a string of green hydrogen facilities in Europe.
The point is that green hydrogen is happening in Europe. Whether or not it makes economic sense at the present time is another matter entirely. As I have learned from stakeholders in another up-and-coming renewable energy field, when energy consumers are in a bind, cost comes second. For the nations of Europe, Russia’s rampage through Ukraine is a clear warning that cheap natural gas needs to take a back seat to resiliency and national security.
It’s too bad that the US green hydrogen industry will be sitting out the European market. Here’s hoping they can simply survive the next four years.
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Image (cropped): Green hydrogen from Ukraine will be flow into Europe through an existing pipeline network, leveraging the country’s wind and solar energy resources (courtesy of Hydrogen Ukraine).
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