Policy & Socio-Economics

In recent years global efforts towards a future with sustainable energy have intensified the development of renewable energy sources (RESs) such as offshore wind solar photovoltaics (PVs) hydro and geothermal. Concurrently green hydrogen produced via water electrolysis using these RESs has been recognized as a promising solution to decarbonizing traditionally hard-to-abate sectors. Furthermore hydrogen storage provides a long-duration energy storage approach to managing the intermittency of RESs which ensures a reliable and stable electricity supply and supports electric grid operations with ancillary services like frequency and voltage regulation. Despite significant progress the hydrogen economy remains nascent with ongoing developments and persistent uncertainties in economic technological and regulatory aspects. This paper provides a comprehensive review of the green hydrogen value chain encompassing production transportation logistics storage methodologies and end-use applications while identifying key research gaps. Particular emphasis is placed on the integration of green hydrogen into both grid-connected and islanded systems with a focus on operational strategies to enhance grid resilience and efficiency over both the long and short terms. Moreover this paper draws on global case studies from pioneering green hydrogen projects to inform strategies that can accelerate the adoption and large-scale deployment of green hydrogen technologies across diverse sectors and geographies.

EU politics on decarbonizing shipping is an argumentative endeavor where different policy actors strive try to influence others to see problems and policy solutions according to their perspectives to gain monopoly on the framing and design of policies. This article critically analyzes by means of argumentative discourse analysis the politics and policy process related to the recent adoption of the FuelEU Maritime regulation the world’s first legislation to set requirements for decarbonizing maritime shipping. Complementing previous research focusing on the roles and agency of policy entrepreneurs and beliefs of advocacy coalitions active in the policy process this paper dives deeper into the politics of the new legislation. It aims to explore and explain the discursive framing and politics of meaning-making. By analyzing the political and social meaning-making of the concept “decarbonizing maritime shipping” this paper helps us understand why the legislation was designed in the way it was. Different narratives storylines and discourses defining different meanings of decarbonization are analyzed. So is the agency of policy actors trying to mutate the different meanings into a new meaning. Two discourses developed in dialectic conversation framed the policy proposals and subsequent debates in the policy process focusing on (i) incremental change and technology neutrality to meet moderate emission reductions and maintain competitiveness and (ii) transformative change and technology specificity to meet zero emissions and gain competitiveness and global leadership in the transition towards a hydrogen economy. Policy actors successfully used discursive agency strategies such as multiple functionality and vagueness to navigate between and resolve conflicts between the two discourses. Both discourses are associated with the overarching ecological modernization discourse and failed to include issue of climate justice and a just transition. The heritage of the ecological modernization discourse creates lock-ins for a broader decarbonization discourse thus stalling a just transition.

This paper presents an assessment of the levelized cost of clean hydrogen produced in Sicily a region in Southern Italy particularly rich in renewable energy and where nearly 50% of Italy’s refineries are located making a comparison between on-site production that is near the end users who will use the hydrogen and centralized production comparing the costs obtained by employing the two types of electrolyzers already commercially available. In the study for centralized production the scale factor method was applied on the costs of electrolyzers and the optimal transport modes were considered based on the distance and amount of hydrogen to be transported. The results obtained indicate higher prices for hydrogen produced locally (from about 7 €/kg to 10 €/kg) and lower prices (from 2.66 €/kg to 5.80 €/kg) for hydrogen produced in centralized plants due to economies of scale and higher conversion efficiencies. How-ever meeting the demand for clean hydrogen at minimal cost requires hydrogen distribution pipelines to transport it from centralized production sites to users which currently do not exist in Sicily as well as a significant amount of renewable energy ranging from 1.4 to 1.7 TWh per year to cover only 16% of refineries’ hydrogen needs.

Hydrogen produced by renewable energy sources (green hydrogen) is at the centrepiece of European decarbonization strategies necessitating large imports from third countries. Egypt potentially stands out as major production hub. While technical and economic viability are broadly discussed in literature analyses of local acceptance are absent. This study closes this gap by surveying 505 locals in the Suez Canal Economic Zone (Port Said and Suez) regarding their attitudes towards renewable energy development and green hydrogen production. We find overall support for both national deployment and export to Europe. Respondents see a key benefit in rising income thereby strongly underlying the economic argument. Improved trade relationships or improved political relationships are seen as potential benefits of export but as less relevant for engaging in cooperation putting a spotlight on local benefits. Our study suggests that the local population is more positive than negative towards the development and scaling up of green hydrogen projects in Egypt.

For fast-tracking climate change response green hydrogen is key for achieving greenhouse gas neutral energy systems. Especially Sub-Saharan Africa can benefit from it enabling an increased access to clean energy through utilizing its beneficial conditions for renewable energies. However developing green hydrogen strategies for Sub-Saharan Africa requires highly detailed and consistent information ranging from technical environmental economic and social dimensions which is currently lacking in literature. Therefore this paper provides a comprehensive novel approach embedding the required range of disciplines to analyze green hydrogen costpotentials in Sub-Saharan Africa. This approach stretches from a dedicated land eligibility based on local preferences a location specific renewable energy simulation locally derived sustainable groundwater limitations under climate change an optimization of local hydrogen energy systems and a socio-economic indicator-based impact analysis. The capability of the approach is shown for case study regions in Sub-Saharan Africa highlighting the need for a unified interdisciplinary approach.

Hydrogen is viewed as a potential energy solution for the 21st century with capabilities to tackle issues relating to environmental emissions sustainability energy shortages and security. Even though there are potential benefits of renewable hydrogen towards transitioning to net-zero emissions there is a limited study on the current use ongoing development and future directions of renewable hydrogen in Australia. Thus this study conducts a systematic review of studies for exploring Australia’s renewable hydrogen energy transition current trends strategies developments and future directions. By using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines earlier studies from 2005 to 2024 from two major databases such as ProQuest and Web of Science are gathered and analyzed. The study highlights significant issues relating to hydrogen energy technologies and opportunities/challenges in production storage distribution utilization and environmental impacts. The study found that Australia’s ambition for a strong hydrogen economy is made apparent with its clear strategic actions to develop a clean technology-based hydrogen production storage and distribution system. This study provides several practical insights on Australia’s hydrogen energy transition hydrogen energy technologies investments and innovation as well as strategies/recommendations for achieving a more environment friendly secure affordable and sustainable energy future.

Innovative approaches on clean alternative energy sources are important for future decarbonization. Electrification and hydrogen energy are crucial pathways for decarbonization in both transportation and buildings. However life-cycle stage-wise carbon intensity is still unclear for both hydrogen- and electricity-driven energy. Furthermore systematic evaluation on low-carbon transition pathways is insufficient specifically within the Internet of Energy that interfaces hydrogen and electricity. Here a generic approach is proposed for quantifying life-cycle stage-wise carbon intensity of both hydrogen- and electricity-driven energy internets. Life-cycle decarbonization effects on vehicle pathways are compared with traditional vehicles with internal-combustion engines. Techno-economic and environmental feasibility of the future advanced hydrogen-driven Internet of Energy is analyzed based on net present value. The region-wise carbon-intensity map and associated decarbonization strategies will help researchers and policymakers in promoting sustainable development with the hydrogen economy.

This study examines hydrogen production across 27 European countries highlighting disparities due to varying energy policies and industrial capacities. Germany leads with 109 plants followed by Poland France Italy and the UK. Mid-range contributors like the Netherlands Spain Sweden and Belgium also show substantial investments. Countries like Finland Norway Austria and Denmark known for their renewable energy policies have fewer plants while Estonia Iceland Ireland Lithuania and Slovenia are just beginning to develop hydrogen capacities. The analysis also reveals that a significant portion of the overall hydrogen production capacity in these countries remains underutilized with an estimated 40% of existing infrastructure not operating at full potential. Many countries underutilize their production capacities due to infrastructural and operational challenges. Addressing these issues could enhance output supporting Europe’s energy transition goals. The study underscores the potential of hydrogen as a sustainable energy source in Europe and the need for continued investment technological advancements supportive policies and international collaboration to realize this potential.

Hydrogen is a versatile energy carrier which can be produced from variety of feedstocks stored and transported in various forms for multi-functional end-uses in transportation energy and manufacturing sectors. Several regional national and supra-national climate policy frameworks emphasize the need value and importance of Fuel cell and Hydrogen (FCH) technologies for deep and sector-wide decarbonization. Despite these multi-faceted advantages familiar and proven FCH technologies such as alkaline electrolysis and proton-exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) often face economic technical and societal barriers to mass-market adoption. There is no single unified standardized and globally harmonized normative definition of costs. Nevertheless the discussion and debates surrounding plausible candidates and/or constituents integral for assessing the economics and value proposition of status-quo as well as developmental FCH technologies are steadily increasing—Life Cycle Costing (LCC) being one of them if not the most important outcome of such exercises.<br/>To that end this review article seeks to improve our collective understanding of LCC of FCH technologies by scrutinizing close to a few hundred publications drawn from representative databases—SCOPUS and Web of Science encompassing several tens of technologies for production and select transportation storage and end-user utilization cases. This comprehensive review forms part of and serves as the basis for the Clean Hydrogen Partnership funded SH2E project whose ultimate goal is the methodical development a formal set of principles and guardrails for evaluating the economic environmental and social impacts of FCH technologies. Additionally the SH2E projects will also facilitate the proper comparison of different FCH technologies whilst reconciling range of technologies methodologies modelling assumptions and parameterization found in existing literature.

The development of a Clean Hydrogen Standard based on life-cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is gaining prominence on the international agenda. Thus a framework for assessing life-cycle GHG emissions for clean hydrogen pathways is necessary. In this study the comprehensive datasets and effects of various scenarios encompassing hydrogen production carriers (liquid hydrogen ammonia methylcyclohexane) carbon capture and storage (CCS) target analysis year (2021 2030) to reflect trends of greening grid electricity and potential import countries on aggregated life-cycle GHG emissions were presented. South Korea was chosen as a case study region and the low-carbon alternatives were suggested for reducing aggregated emissions to meet the Korean standard (5 kgCO2e/kgH2). First capturing and storing nearly entire (>90%) CO2 from fossil- and waste-based production pathways is deemed essential. Second when repurposing the use of hydrogen that was otherwise used internally applying a penalty for substitution is appropriate leading to results notably exceeding the standard. Third for electrolysis-based hydrogen using renewable or nuclear electricity is essential. Lastly when hydrogen is imported in a well-to-point-of-delivery (WtP) perspective using renewable electricity during hydrogen conversion into a carrier and reusing the produced hydrogen for endothermic reconversion reaction are recommended. By implementing the developed calculation framework to other countries' cases it was observed that importing hydrogen to regions having scope of WtP or above (e.g. well-to-wheel) might not meet the threshold due to additional emissions from importation processes. Additionally for hydrogen carriers undergoing the endothermic reconversion the approach to reduce WtP emissions (reusing produced hydrogen) may conflict with the approach to reduce well-to-gate (WtG) emission (using external fossilbased fuel). The discrepancy highlights the need to set a broader scope of emissions assessment to effectively promote the life-cycle emission reduction efforts of hydrogen importers. This study contributes to the field of clean hydrogen GHG emission assessment offering a robust database and calculation framework while addressing the effects of greening grid electricity and CCS implementation proposing low-carbon alternatives and GHG assessment scope to achieve global GHG reduction.