New EU guidelines defining “inexperienced” hydrogen have intensified a long-running disagreement between France and Germany over the way to deal with nuclear vitality as Europe seeks to cut back carbon emissions and transfer away from fossil fuels.
The framework, set out by the European Fee on Monday, permits hydrogen derived from electrical energy grids with excessive ranges of nuclear energy to be thought-about inexperienced so long as the producer buys a long-term contract for renewable vitality equal to its consumption. The purpose of the principles is to make sure the hydrogen just isn’t made with soiled fossil fuels and to incentivise funding into renewables.
The transfer is taken into account a victory for France, which has been pushing to have allowances for “low carbon” fuels added to a number of items of EU vitality laws with a purpose to guarantee its home nuclear business can compete within the European market.
However the guidelines don’t settle the matter of how France’s nuclear-generated electrical energy will likely be handled underneath future laws, together with the bloc’s revised renewable vitality directive. Negotiations on this are nonetheless underneath approach in Brussels and French officers have warned that the viability of a deliberate hydrogen pipeline from Spain via France to Germany, referred to as H2Med, could possibly be undermined if nuclear energy was not handled as “inexperienced” for hydrogen manufacturing.
“This [decision today] is especially necessary for France,” a French vitality ministry official mentioned, including that it represented “a victory” for the nation’s vitality minister Agnès Pannier-Runacher.
“It recognises the carbon-free nature of the French electrical energy combine within the calculation of renewable hydrogen goals,” the official added.
Nuclear vitality offers three-quarters of energy manufacturing in France by way of a fleet of reactors constructed for the reason that Fifties.
The Germans, whose financial system ministry is led by Inexperienced get together minister Robert Habeck, mentioned that they had a “clear place” on nuclear vitality.
“Nuclear energy just isn’t renewable vitality and hydrogen created from nuclear vitality just isn’t inexperienced hydrogen. This place is well-known to everybody and it’s the place we’ll be taking into the discussions,” a spokesperson for the financial system ministry mentioned.
Below the brand new guidelines from Brussels, hydrogen producers in areas the place the depth of carbon emissions from electrical energy manufacturing are decrease than 18g CO₂ equal per megajoule (18gCO₂eq/MJ) can take electrical energy from the grid and offset their consumption with an influence buy settlement for renewables. The one areas that presently certified had been France and northern Sweden, an EU official mentioned.
Sweden generates round 45 per cent of its vitality from hydropower and 40 per cent from nuclear.
“It is a enormous win for France and to a lesser extent Sweden,” mentioned one EU diplomat. “Germany’s issues weren’t taken into consideration.”
“That is one thing being mentioned on a number of information and wishes an answer . . . It’s a query of some international locations wanting “low carbon” in all places and a few international locations not wanting it in any respect,” mentioned one other diplomat.
Environmental campaigners have warned that the principles might lead to extra fossil fuels being burnt, as a result of electrolysers would deplete nuclear or renewable energy in any other case destined for customers. This demand must be met by fossil gas mills as a substitute.
“On paper you might be producing nuclear electrical energy however in follow you might be simply shifting your electrical energy from one sector to a different after which the sector that doesn’t have sufficient will name on extra fuel,” mentioned Marta Lovisolo, coverage adviser on renewable vitality techniques at local weather NGO Bellona.
The definition of renewable hydrogen has been delayed by greater than a yr due to disagreements over how the consumption of hydrogen electrolysers must be counted.
European hydrogen producers have been placing stress on the fee to set out the principles fearing an industrial exodus to the US, which introduced $370bn in clear vitality subsidies as a part of the Inflation Discount Act.
The fee has set a goal for the EU to provide 10mn tonnes of hydrogen domestically by 2030, which might require electrical energy equal to 14 per cent of the bloc’s present annual consumption.
