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Revision of the EU Hydrogen Strategy for Industry

During my recent application process, I was asked to prepare a presentation on the revision of the EU Hydrogen Strategy.

In the end, another candidate turned out to be a better fit for the role. That happens, and it’s part of any competitive process.

At the same time, I remain confident that my qualifications and the strategic depth of my presentation were very strong. The task clearly demonstrated my ability to develop a structured, forward-looking policy strategy, grounded in regulation, market realities, and industrial needs.

This exercise itself confirmed something important for me: the revision of the EU Hydrogen Strategy will be a decisive moment for Europe’s industrial decarbonisation.

So I’d like to briefly share a few reflections.

Since the adoption of the EU Hydrogen Strategy in 2020, we’ve seen:

strong political ambition,
an impressive number of project announcements,
but still too few final investment decisions.

This gap is no longer about vision. It’s about implementation, prioritisation, and bankability, and this is where strategic policy design becomes critical.

Looking ahead, a revised EU Hydrogen Strategy should focus less on targets alone and more on:

investment security and risk-sharing instruments
real demand creation and offtake certainty
simpler and more predictable rules for renewable and low-carbon hydrogen
alignment with the Clean Industrial Deal and industrial competitiveness
an effective international dimension, including imports and certification.

Hydrogen remains essential for hard-to-electrify industrial sectors. Its strategic role hasn’t diminished, but the policy framework now needs to mature from ambition to delivery.

Grateful for the opportunity to think this through and always happy to exchange views with others working on Europe’s hydrogen future.

Maryna Hritsyshyna. Revision of EU Hydrogen Strategy for Industry

Maryna Hritsyshyna. Revision of EU Hydrogen Strategy for Industry. Key Facts and Questions

Posted By : admin 24 Jan, 2026

Clean Energy Technology Observatory

Clean Energy Technology Observatory: Renewable Fuels of Non-Biological Origin in the European Union – 2025 Status Report on Technology Development, Trends, Value Chains and Markets

✅ Some Key Takeaways:

📌 Technology status

RFNBO production technologies involve electrolysers and the downstream conversion of renewable hydrogen into synthetic fuels, mostly based on established industrial processes using fossil-based inputs, now adapted for renewable hydrogen and captured carbon CO2 or N2 as feedstocks.
Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs) vary from 5–7 for innovative variants, up to 8–9 for commercially ready pathways like e-methanol and e-CH₄.
Most RFNBO technologies are at pilot or early commercial scale, with no fundamental technical barriers, but with substantial economic and infrastructure challenges to overcome.
Installed capacity remains modest, with approximately 35 operational e-methane plants in 2024 and total EU e-fuel capacity below 0.5 Mt/year, although project pipelines (45 announced e-kerosene (SAF) projects and several Power-to-X (PtX) hubs) are expected to expand capacity to a few hundred thousand tons per year by 2030.
Cost trends indicate strong learning effects: CAPEX for synthesis plants is projected to decrease by 30–35% by 2050. By 2030, several studies estimated production costs at €1.6–2.3 per litre of diesel equivalent for e-methanol and over €3.5 per litre for Fischer–Tropsch fuels, but the current trend could push these costs higher.

📌 Investment and funding

Public funding for research and innovation under Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe has reached €200 million for over 40 projects, focused on RFNBO production.
Other EU initiatives can also indirectly finance RFNBO projects by leveraging complementary funding streams, EU public support for innovation readiness, and private capital for commercialisation and scale-up.
Commercial-scale projects still rely heavily on public guarantees and offtake agreements.

📌 Value chain

The RFNBO value chain integrates renewable hydrogen production, CO2/N2 capture, chemical synthesis, and fuel distribution, spanning multiple industrial sectors.
Early deployment is concentrated in Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Spain.
The economic potential is considerable: RFNBO could contribute over €40–60 billion annually to the EU economy by 2040, creating up to 200,000 direct and indirect jobs in the hydrogen, chemical, and transport sectors.

📌 EU positioning and global competitiveness

The EU maintains global leadership in RFNBO research, demonstration, and regulatory frameworks, but lags behind the US and China in commercial scale-up.
Under the Net-Zero Industry Act, the EU aims to secure 40% domestic production of strategic net-zero emission technologies by 2030.

➡️ Source: Clean Energy Technology Observatory: Renewable Fuels of Non-Biological Origin in the European Union – 2025 Status Report on Technology Development, Trends, Value Chains and Markets

Posted By : admin 16 Jan, 2026

German Aid for Canadian Renewable H2

European Commission approves German Aid for Canadian Renewable Hydrogen

📢 New funding opportunities for hydrogen projects in Canada.

The European Commission has approved a €200 million German State aid scheme to support the production of renewable hydrogen and its derivatives (RFNBOs) in Canada for supply to the EU market.

✅ Key elements of the German support scheme:

📌 Germany notified the Commission of a €200 million support programme, complemented by an additional €200 million in Canadian funding, to enable cost-efficient RFNBO production in Canada.

📌 The scheme aims to incentivise the construction of up to 300 MW of electrolysis capacity through a competitive bidding process, expected to conclude in 2027.

📌 It is based on a double auction model, matching RFNBO producers in Canada with buyers in the EU. Producers offering the lowest supply price and buyers offering the highest offtake price will enter into a contractual relationship with State resources helping to fill the funding gap between the two prices.

📌 Beneficiaries must demonstrate full compliance with EU RFNBO sustainability and certification criteria, as defined in the delegated acts on renewable hydrogen.

📌 The scheme is expected to avoid up to 2.47 million tonnes of CO2-equivalent emissions.

➡️ Source: Commission approves €200 million German State aid for Canadian-produced renewable hydrogen and its derivatives for EU market

Posted By : admin 14 Jan, 2026

Public consultation for bilateral German-Australian H2Global funding window

The German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWE) has launched a public market consultation under the Climate, Energy and Environmental Aid Guidelines (CEEAG) requirements for the German–Australian bilateral H2Global funding window (2030–2041/42).

🗓 Deadline to submit feedback: 16 February 2026

☑️ Why Australia?

In September 2023, Germany and Australia signed a Joint Declaration of Intent as part of their energy partnership. A key element of this cooperation is the development of a joint auction for green hydrogen products, implemented under the H2Global double auction model.

The objective is clear:

support the global market ramp-up of green hydrogen;
provide secure long-term offtake agreements;
send reliable price signals to producers and buyers.

Germany will provide up to EUR 200 million from the Climate and Transformation Fund (KTF). The Australian government, represented by the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, will contribute an equivalent amount.

As a result, the total support budget of the bilateral H2Global auction amounts to EUR 400 million. Based on the assumption that the auction will focus on renewable ammonia, with production prices in the range of EUR 1,100–1,600 per tonne and expected offtake prices between EUR 500–900 per tonne, this budget could enable the procurement of up to 360,000 tonnes of renewable ammonia.

✅ Why this consultation matters

The international hydrogen ramp-up has been constrained by well-known challenges, such as high production costs for renewable hydrogen and limited willingness to pay on the demand side.

The planned German–Australian auction aims to address these by sharing the “difference costs” equally between both sides.

To properly design the auction and ensure compliance with EU state aid rules, BMWE is conducting this public market consultation and explicitly invites all affected companies to participate.

📄 The questionnaire (in English), outlining the measure and the specific questions, is available via the consultation link.

➡️ Source: Market consultation for the Bilateral German-Australian H2Global funding window

Posted By : admin 10 Jan, 2026

Fitness Check on EU Energy Security

The European Commission has just published a ‘fitness check’ of EU legislation on electricity and gas security of supply, looking both at past performance and what lies ahead. The document acknowledges that energy security in the EU will look very different in a decarbonised, electrified and geopolitically changed energy system.

✅ Key future developments include:

The evolving role of electricity and natural gas in a highly electrified, integrated energy system.
Protecting consumers and critical energy needs amid electrification and the phase-out of natural gas.
The growing role of new energy carriers such as biomethane and hydrogen.
Diversification of supply in response to geopolitical shifts and a stronger focus on homegrown clean energy.
The importance of critical raw materials for resilient clean-tech supply chains.
The increasing impact of climate change on EU energy security.

☑️ These points are clarified by the following:

📌 The energy transition will have a profound effect on the future security of gas and electricity supply. Phasing out imported fossil fuels and instead relying on homegrown renewable energy sources will have a substantial positive impact on the EU’s energy security. At the same time, a more electrified and decarbonised energy system requires a different management approach, with greater flexibility.

📌 Biomethane will become increasingly relevant for energy security. Under the Hydrogen and Decarbonised Gas Package, biomethane is now explicitly included in the definition of “natural gas”, meaning the Gas Security of Supply Regulation will apply to it from 2025 onwards. However, biomethane has very different characteristics compared to fossil gas: seasonal production, strong reliance on local resources, and predominantly decentralised injection into distribution grids. Importantly, biomethane-fired generation is still expected to contribute to electricity security by 2050 by providing flexible backup for variable renewables.

📌 Hydrogen will also become important for the future energy security framework, particularly for hard-to-abate sectors, and as a source of flexibility for the power system. Long-term storage, e-gases and e-fuels can all support security of supply. However, hydrogen will not simply “replace” natural gas. Its system role will be fundamentally different, and the deployment of electrolysers must be carefully aligned with grid capacities and broader decarbonisation pathways.

Overall, this ‘fitness check’ makes one thing very clear:

Energy security is no longer just about conventional fuels;
Energy security is about system design, flexibility, resilience, and smart regulation.

➡️ Source: Commission publishes “fitness check” on EU laws covering the security of electricity and gas supply in view of future revision

Posted By : admin 3 Dec, 2025

ACER’s European hydrogen markets 2025 Monitoring Report

The ACER’s European hydrogen markets provides 2025 Monitoring Report a realistic snapshot of the current state of development of the European hydrogen market.

✅ Key Takeaways:

📌 As of October 2025, only two Member States, Denmark and Ireland, have notified the Commission of the completion of RED III transposition.

📌 Despite a strong 51% annual increase in installed electrolyser capacity in the EU in 2024, the installed capacity of 308 MW (2024) and the 1.8 GW capacity under construction still fall well short of a realistic trajectory toward the 2030 EU (40 GW) and Member States (48-54 GW) targets.

📌 At around 8 EUR/kgH2, the average cost of RFNBO hydrogen in the EU currently remains four times higher than that of conventional hydrogen from natural gas (just over 2 EUR/kg).

📌 Electricity supply costs, excluding grid tariffs, may account for up to 50% of the levelised cost of renewable hydrogen, depending on the electricity supply mix, with substantial regional variations across the EU.

📌 Uncertain future demand for renewable hydrogen, driven by the current cost, makes it difficult for hydrogen network operators (HNOs) to align network development with demand evolution, increasing the financial risks associated with this uncertainty. Adaptive network planning, reflecting the latest market trends, is essential to ensure efficient investment and cost control.

📌 Low-carbon hydrogen produced from natural gas with carbon capture and storage (CCS) could support market development and accelerate decarbonisation in some sectors. With current production cost estimates at just below 3 EUR/kg, low-carbon hydrogen with CCS is more competitive than renewable hydrogen.

📌 Funding availability is increasing, but implementation remains slow. The European Commission has allocated more than €20 billion through various hydrogen-related programmes, including auctions under the European Hydrogen Bank. In addition, the EU Hydrogen Mechanism has been launched to facilitate supply–demand matching and accelerate hydrogen market creation.

Hydrogen progress hampered by high costs and slow transposition. Delays in transposing EU rules at national level persist. 2 Member States transposed the amended Renewable Energy Directive into national law.

308 MW electrolyser capacity reached in 2024, way behind EU targets for the year (6 GW). Renewable hydrogen (H2) is 4x more expensive than fossil-based hydrogen. Low-carbon hydrogen could offer a cheaper solution, but cost and technical uncertainties remain. Electricity costs alone account for up to 50% of renewable hydrogen production costs.

➡️ Source: The European Union Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators. European hydrogen markets 2025 Monitoring Report

Posted By : admin 16 Nov, 2025

Green Hydrogen & RFNBO Criteria

Institute of Energy Economics at the University of Cologne gGmbH (EWI). Green hydrogen production under RFNBO criteria ‐ Analyzing the system and business case perspective.

Today I took a closer look at a new EWI study: “Green hydrogen production under RFNBO criteria – Analyzing the system and business case perspective” (2025).

✅ Key Takeaways:

This analysis examines the impact of the RFNBO criteria on green hydrogen production from system and business perspectives, with particular attention to how the criteria affect costs, capacity expansion, and the need for system flexibility.

📌 From a system perspective:

Implementing all RFNBO criteria increases electrolysis capacity by over 3% across Europe to meet predefined demand, while average full-load hours decline by around 200 hours.
Applying all RFNBO criteria with hourly matching increases average hydrogen supply costs by around 10 EUR/MWh (+8%) across Europe, driven primarily by additionality requirements and the shift from daily to hourly matching.
In Germany, expected to be the largest hydrogen offtaker in Europe, the impact on marginal hydrogen costs is higher than the EU average (+16%).
These effects highlight distributional impacts between sectors: while marginal electricity costs decline due to surplus renewables entering the market, additional system costs remain within the hydrogen sector. This implies a cost shift from electricity consumers to hydrogen producers.
Average EU electricity costs fall by around 5%, and marginal CO₂ certificate costs by around 2%.
Applying all RFNBO criteria adds over 25 GWel of additional RES capacity across Europe. In Germany, total installed RES capacity increases by 17%.
Adding RFNBO criteria reallocates capacities from the electricity market to hydrogen production.
With stricter temporal correlation requirements, hydrogen production increasingly relies on RES with high full-load hours (onshore and offshore wind), leaving more volatile solar generation to the electricity market.

📌 From a business perspective:

Tighter matching requirements push portfolios toward dedicated renewables and short-term flexibility.
Under Hourly Matching and a baseload supply profile, PV is often combined with large batteries; adding hydrogen storage can shift flexibility from the electricity sector to the hydrogen sector.
Results show that LCOH are more sensitive to constraints from the business perspective: in the baseline, they rise from around 150 EUR/MWh (No Criteria) to almost 180 EUR/MWh (Hourly Matching), an increase of +19%, with the largest jump occurring between Daily and Hourly Matching.
Sensitivity analyses reveal a much stronger impact than in the system perspective, especially under Hourly Matching, where LCOH range from about 170 EUR/MWh up to 370 EUR/MWh.
The difference between Monthly and Hourly Matching spans from roughly 15 EUR/MWh to over 90 EUR/MWh.

➡️ Source: EWI (2025). Green hydrogen production under RFNBO criteria ‐ Analyzing the system and business case perspective.

Posted By : admin 13 Nov, 2025

Hydrogen Mechanism

🔹 New milestone for the EU hydrogen market! 🔹

On 12 November, the European Commission launched the first call for interest under the Hydrogen Mechanism, which is a key step to connect potential suppliers and buyers of renewable and low-carbon hydrogen and its derivatives across the EU.

🔗 Official announcement

🔗 Hydrogen Mechanism platform

💡 What is the Hydrogen Mechanism?

An online platform that supports market development for renewable and low-carbon hydrogen and its derivatives, such as ammonia, methanol, and electro-sustainable aviation fuel (eSAF).

📅 Key timeline:

12 Nov 2025 – 2 Jan 2026: Submission phase: Suppliers are invited to submit supply offers.
19 Jan 2026: Publication of anonymised supply offers.
19 Jan – 20 Mar 2026: Off-takers express their interest.
31 Mar 2026: Results available to participants.

➡️ Why it matters:

Connects future demand and supply, reducing market uncertainty;
Increases transparency and visibility of potential partners;
Facilitates hydrogen infrastructure and financing access;
Encourages market engagement and new business opportunities.

The Hydrogen Mechanism is another important step toward building a hydrogen market.

The Hydrogen Mechanism under the EU Energy and Raw Materials Platform. Update

Submission phase: Opening 12 November 2025 until 2 January 2026. Suppliers are invited to submit supply offers.
Publication of call for interest: 19 January 2026. Publication of anonymised information sheets about the supply offers.
Expression of interest: Opening 19 January 2026 until 20 March 2026. Off-takers are invited to express their interest.
Results: 31 March 2026. Results are available to participants of the call.

Posted By : admin 29 Oct, 2025

Federal Court of Auditors report

📢 Germany Must Revise Its Hydrogen Strategy under the Federal Court of Auditors (Bundesrechnungshof) Report

✅ Main Findings:

📌 The German government considers hydrogen a key pillar of the energy transition, aiming for Germany to become climate-neutral by 2045.

📌 The federal government has already allocated more than €7 billion in funding, mainly as subsidies, for 2024 and 2025. Despite this significant financial commitment, the objectives of the national hydrogen strategy have not yet been achieved.

📌 The Federal Court of Auditors found that both supply and demand for green hydrogen in Germany have not developed as planned. A sufficient hydrogen supply is intended to come from domestic production and at least half from imports. However, the German government will not meet its domestic production targets for green hydrogen by 2030, nor will anticipated import volumes cover the expected demand.

📌 Green hydrogen remains significantly more expensive than fossil fuels such as natural gas. Since competitive production or import prices are not foreseeable in the near future, long-term government subsidies are likely to remain necessary. To bridge the price gap between hydrogen and natural gas, import costs alone could place a burden of €3 to €25 billion on the federal budget by 2030.

☑️ Reality Check

The Federal Court of Auditors recommends that the Federal Government:

review the hydrogen strategy and its current implementation, reassessing whether and when green hydrogen can be made available in sufficient quantities, at competitive prices;
evaluate, as part of this review, the actual contribution the hydrogen economy can make to the energy transition as a whole;
revise the hydrogen strategy to ensure that supply, demand, and infrastructure are developed as synchronously and cost-effectively as possible; and
develop a “Plan B”, if necessary, to achieve climate neutrality by 2045, even without a permanently subsidised hydrogen economy.

➡️ Source: Bundesrechnungshof: Umsetzung der Wasserstoffstrategie stockt: Erhebliche Risiken für Energiewende, Industriestandort und Bundesfinanzen

Posted By : admin 23 Oct, 2025

ReFuelEU Aviation Annual Technical Report

✈️ The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has published the first ReFuelEU Aviation Annual Technical Report.

☑️ Synthetic Aviation Fuels (e-SAF) Market Development as of June 2025:

The global pipeline for e-SAF facilities comprises 94 announced demonstration or commercial projects, with a combined capacity of 7.2 million tonnes per year.
The European Economic Area (EEA) is the frontrunner, accounting for 59% of projects and 42% of planned capacity.
Due to the absence of binding e-SAF mandates outside the EU and UK, many projects are oriented toward exporting to the European market.
Planned non-EEA capacity faces both slow project progress and the challenge of meeting the EU’s stringent sustainability criteria before these fuels can be imported into the EU.

✅ Key Takeaways:

📌 EU SAF production capacities are projected to be sufficient to meet the minimum SAF shares defined under the ReFuelEU Aviation Regulation for 2030 (excluding e-SAF).

📌 A continuous scale-up of production will be necessary to establish a well-functioning market and achieve the 2035 ReFuelEU targets, which rise to 20% that year. The scale-up of e-SAF production in the EU is still lagging.

📌 As of today, none of the se-SAF facilities in the EU have reached Final Investment Decision (FID), putting at risk the 2030 sub-target for e-SAF. To meet that target, given development lead times, several facilities must reach FID by 2026 at the latest.

📌 Of the feedstock used for SAF supplied in the EU, 69% originated from non-EU countries, with China contributing 38%, Malaysia 12%, and Finland 10% as the largest European contributor.

📌 In 2024, 25 aviation fuel suppliers (out of 83) reported a total supply of 193 kt of SAF. Fewer than ten suppliers accounted for 80% of this amount, indicating a high level of market concentration. This suggests that the EU SAF market remains nascent and dominated by a few mature or well-capitalized players.

📌 SAF was delivered to 33 Union airports across 12 EU Member States, with 5 Member States – France, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, and Germany – accounting for 99% of the total amount supplied.

📌 According to Eurostat, the EU imported 80 kt of SAF in 2024, representing over 40% of the total EU SAF supply that year, highlighting the continued importance of imports despite the gradual growth of domestic production.

➡️ Source: European Union Aviation Safety Agency. ReFuelEU Aviation Annual Technical Report 2025

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