Obtain the data you need to make the most informed decisions by accessing our extensive portfolio of information, analytics, and expertise. Sign in to the product or service center of your choice.
Italy is set to build a "hydrogen valley" incubator for gas
network and mobility end uses in Rome, according to a statement by
Italy's state-sponsored technology development agency (ENEA).
The project won €14 million (US$16 million) in funding from a
coalition of states and the EU that offers funding to spur
public-private cleantech investment. The coalition, Mission
Innovation, was launched by Bill Gates in parallel with his
cleantech investment vehicle Breakthrough Energy at COP21 in
2015.
Hydrogen valleys can cut the cost of hydrogen production by
reaching economies of scale, the coalition said. By allowing
businesses to form supply chains for hydrogen production and
consumption, they can help tackle, for example, the sticky problem
areas of storage, transportation, as well as overall costs, in
incubators ranging in size from an entire industrial estate to a
city.
Hydrogen valleys are spread across Europe, a total of 19 in all,
with at least 32 announced so far worldwide according to an online
networking
platform for hydrogen valleys developed by Mission Innovation
and an EU public private partnership, FCH JU. Another hydrogen
valley focused in South Tyrol, Italy was developed by Institute for
Innovative Technologies Kons, the German research nonprofit, and
funded by the EU's European Regional Development Fund.
Power-to-gas and mobility
ENEA plans to build an "all Italian" hydrogen valley at its
Casaccia Research Center, incorporating the supply chain across its
network of 200 buildings, laboratories, roads, an autonomous gas
network, and an electricity network, it
said on 18 March.
The project will produce green hydrogen using a commercial
alkaline or polymer electrolyzer, as well as researching highly
efficient advanced electrolyzers. Apart from using an electrolyzer
of around 200 kW to produce green hydrogen from solar photovoltaic
facilities, the project may experiment with producing green
hydrogen from residual biomass and renewable heat from concentrated
solar power plants.
Aiming to decarbonize the mobility sector, ENEA is planning a
hydrogen refueling station to fuel trucks, buses, and cars in use
at the research center. In another application, Italian power
company Enel's renewable generation subsidiary and Italian public
railway company FNM will build hydrogen-powered trains that would
replace existing diesel trains. Enel will also produce the green
hydrogen, having previously established green hydrogen partnerships
and projects in Chile, the US, and Italy.
The project's green hydrogen also may be converted into methane
or fed into the internal natural gas grid in a power-to-gas
application, serving as energy storage "in anticipation of a strong
growth of renewables."
The positive outcome of creating a hydrogen market foreseen by
ENEA is strengthening Italy's solar PV markets and PV module
production capability, which is currently dominated by China,
according to IHS Markit
data on solar module production. Hydrogen uptake could also
spur the market for locally manufactured electrolyzers and
hydrogen-powered fuel cells for vehicles.
EU hydrogen projects
ENEA is set to expand Italy's global role in hydrogen through a
different project. In February, it announced it's working on behalf
of Italy's Ministry of Economic Development (MiSE) to gain EU
backing for a hydrogen initiative set to be one of the EU's
Important Projects of Common European Interest (IPCEI). The EU
sanctions the public-private projects for funding and incubation by
allowing increased state subsidies to flow to the projects.
In neighboring Germany, another hydrogen IPCEI being put
together by the national energy ministry has received around 200
hydrogen project proposals from companies, the German ministry said
in February.
In 2018, the European Commission identified hydrogen as one of
six strategic value chains that would increase the EU's economic
and technological competitiveness while securing bloc-wide energy
supplies.
Both renewable and low-carbon hydrogen have a role to play in
meeting the EU's 2050 climate neutrality goal, the EC said in its
Hydrogen Strategy published in July 2020. The EC expects that
renewable hydrogen will gradually become cost-competitive with
low-carbon hydrogen from 2025 to 2030.
In this phase of the strategy, the EC explained hydrogen valleys
would be developed off-grid, with decentralized renewable energy
and hydrogen production meeting local demand for renewable energy
storage, industrial fuel and residential heat. The valleys also
would demonstrate hydrogen transport over short distances. It said
it would enact demand policies to stimulate hydrogen uptake by
operators of rail, trucks, certain ships, and steel production
plants.
Posted 25 March 2021 by Cristina Brooks, Senior Journalist, Climate and Sustainability
