Electrolytic Hydrogen Production: How Green Must Green Be?

Electrolytic hydrogen from renewable sources is central to many nations' net-zero emission strategies, serving as a low-carbon alternative for traditional uses and enabling decarbonisation across multiple sectors. Current stringent policies in the EU and US are set to soon require hourly time-matching of renewable electricity generation used by electrolysers, aimed at ensuring that hydrogen production does not cause significant direct or indirect emissions. Whilst such requirements enhance the “green credentials” of hydrogen, they also increase its production costs. A modest relaxation of these requirements offers a practicable route for scaling up low-carbon hydrogen production, optimising both costs and emission reductions. Moreover, in jurisdictions with credible and near-to-medium-term decarbonisation targets, immediate production of electrolytic hydrogen utilising grid electricity would have a lifetime carbon intensity comparable to or even below blue hydrogen and very significantly less than that of diesel, emphasising the need to prioritise rapid grid decarbonisation of the broader grid.