“The future of hydrogen lies in industry, not transportation or heating,” read the headline in China’s New Energy Network, china-negyuan.com. “Will hydrogen in transport turn out to be a dead end?,” asked the Logistics Observer in Poland.
Media around the globe picked up our report Hydrogen Guardrails: Guiding Hydrogen Deployment for Industrial and Heavy Transport Decarbonization, that launched on 19 February. Germany’s briefing Tagesspiegel Background: Energie und Klima, gave an exclusive preview on 18 February, titled: “German think tank argues for prioritizing hydrogen deployment.” The article summarized the key report recommendations, that hydrogen is and will remain scarce in the near term and must therefore first be prioritized for sectors that are currently or will be dependent on it as a feedstock, such as refineries, chemicals, and steel.
“We need clean hydrogen to decarbonize [fertilizers, fuels, and steel] because our modern societies cannot survive without [them],” our Director of Impact and Technologies, Magnolia Tovar, argued in the newsletter Semafor Net Zero.
Specialized online publications such as hydrogen-central.com and H2 View also echoed the report’s recommendations that policymakers focus hydrogen deployment on those sectors that need clean hydrogen as a feedstock to decarbonize – and abandon non-priority sectors such as road transport, building heating, and electricity generation. H2 View further warned that “players within industries tipped as top target by the new report have rolled back clean hydrogen plans, citing high costs and insufficient policy support.”
Media in Poland and Scotland used the report as proof point in coverage shining a light on current inefficient hydrogen deployment plans in these countries. The Scottish daily The Herald cited the Hydrogen Guardrails report in an article about a project that aims to have Scotland’s first homes heated by 100% hydrogen. The Polish Logistics Observer on the other hand cited the report on the topic of hydrogen deployment for public transport. “The international coverage shows that our report came at a crucial moment in time,” says Magnolia Tovar. “Decisionmakers on national and sub-national levels are all grappling with hydrogen prioritization, and it is very important that they have clear guardrails to follow that enable them to choose the decarbonization options that are most efficient on cost, and effective on emissions reductions.”