The European Commission has set out its strategies for achieving the transformation of Europe’s energy system, which accounts for 75% of the EU's greenhouse gas emissions, that will be necessary to achieve climate-neutrality by 2050. The EC believes that its strategies for energy system integration and hydrogen will ‘pave the way towards a more efficient and interconnected energy sector, driven by the twin goals of a cleaner planet and a stronger economy.’
The two strategies present a new clean energy investment agenda, in line with the Commission's Next Generation EU recovery package and the European Green Deal. The planned investments have the potential to stimulate the economic recovery from the coronavirus crisis, create European jobs and boost its leadership and competitiveness in strategic industries, which are crucial to Europe's resilience.
The EU Strategy for Energy System Integration will provide the framework for the green energy transition. The current model where energy consumption in transport, industry, gas and buildings is happening in ‘silos' – each with separate value chains, rules, infrastructure, planning and operations – cannot deliver climate neutrality by 2050 in a cost efficient way; the changing costs of innovative solutions have to be integrated in the way the energy system is operated. New links between sectors must be created and technological progress exploited.
Energy system integration means that the system is planned and operated as a whole, linking different energy carriers, infrastructures, and consumption sectors. This connected and flexible system will be more efficient, and reduce costs for society. For example, this means a system where the electricity that fuels Europe's cars could come from the solar panels on roofs, while buildings are kept warm with heat from a nearby factory, and the factory is fuelled by clean hydrogen produced from off-shore wind energy.
There are three main pillars to this strategy: first, a more ‘circular' energy system, with energy efficiency at its core. The strategy will identify concrete actions to apply the ‘energy efficiency first' principle in practice and to use local energy sources more effectively in our buildings or communities. There is significant potential in the reuse of waste heat from industrial sites, data centres, or other sources, and energy produced from bio-waste or in wastewater treatment plants.
Second, a greater direct electrification of end-use sectors: for example heat pumps in buildings, electric vehicles in transport or electric furnaces in certain industries. A network of one million electric vehicle charging points will be among the visible results, along with the expansion of solar and wind power.
The strategy sets out 38 actions to create a more integrated energy system. These include the revision of existing legislation, financial support, research and deployment of new technologies and digital tools, guidance to member States on fiscal measures and phasing out of fossil fuel subsidies, market governance reform and infrastructure planning, and improved information to consumers. The analysis of the existing barriers in these areas will inform concrete proposals, for instance the revision of the TEN-E regulation by the end of 2020 or the revision of the energy taxation directive and the gas market regulatory framework in 2021.
The EC believes that in an integrated energy system, hydrogen can support the decarbonisation of industry, transport, power generation and buildings across Europe. Its hydrogen strategy is designed to transform this potential into reality, through investments, regulation, market creation and research and innovation.
Hydrogen can power sectors that are not suitable for electrification and provide storage to balance variable renewable energy flows, but this can only be achieved with coordinated action between the public and private sector, at EU level. The priority is to develop renewable hydrogen, produced using mainly wind and solar energy. However, in the short and medium term other forms of low-carbon hydrogen are needed to rapidly reduce emissions and support the development of a viable market.
This gradual transition will require a phased approach: from 2020 to 2024, supporing the installation of at least 6 GW of renewable hydrogen electrolysers in the EU, and the production of up to one million tonnes of renewable hydrogen.
From 2025 to 2030, hydrogen needs to become an intrinsic part of an integrated energy system, with at least 40 GW of renewable hydrogen electrolysers and the production of up to ten million tonnes of renewable hydrogen in the EU.
From 2030 to 2050, renewable hydrogen technologies should reach maturity and be deployed at large scale across all hard-to-decarbonise sectors.
To help deliver on this Strategy, the Commission has launched the European Clean Hydrogen Alliance with industry leaders, civil society, national and regional ministers and the European Investment Bank. The Alliance will build up an investment pipeline for scaled-up production and will support demand for clean hydrogen in the EU.
To target support at the cleanest available technologies, the Commission will work to introduce common standards, terminology and certification, based on life-cycle carbon emissions, anchored in existing climate and energy legislation, and in line with the EU taxonomy for sustainable investments. The Commission will propose policy and regulatory measures to create investor certainty, facilitate the uptake of hydrogen, promote the necessary infrastructure and logistical networks, adapt infrastructure planning tools, and support investments, in particular through the Next Generation EU recovery plan.
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