While the States have just drawn up, five years after its signature, a very mixed assessment of the Paris Agreement, it is more than ever necessary to accelerate the deployment of green energies.
In this context, renewable hydrogen offers convincing arguments to territories wishing to reduce their carbon emissions: it has a particularly high energy content, it can be easily transported and then stored for long periods and, during combustion. , it emits only water and no CO2.
Regarding its uses, hydrogen is mainly suited to the needs of transport and industry and can, moreover, be used in the large-scale storage of intermittent renewable energies.
Convinced for many years of the advantages of hydrogen, the ENGIE Group joined the Hydrogen Council from its creation in 2017 to support the development of the sector by helping cities and regions to set up renewable hydrogen projects. and, above all, to take them to industrial scale.
In addition, ENGIE supports, as a main partner, the floating laboratory Energy Observer - also a member of the Hydrogen Council -, which experiments at sea and on land with innovative and sustainable solutions to make the carbon neutral transition possible in the territories of tomorrow. .
From Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes to Singapore
A pioneer in clean energies, ENGIE strives to bring about the emergence of local “ecosystems” that bring together production, storage and distribution infrastructures.
For example, in 2017, the Group launched the Zero Emission Valley project in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region alongside the Regional Council, Michelin, the Banque des Territoires and Crédit Agricole.
The first “brick of interconnection” between the north and the south of Europe, this is the largest project of this type on the Old Continent.
As such, it is financially supported by Europe and the French State.
Three electrolysers will produce renewable hydrogen for twenty refueling stations which will supply a fleet of more than 1,200 vehicles as well as around 20 buses.
A first step towards the development of the use of hydrogen by manufacturers.
The choice of the region owes nothing to chance: it concentrates nearly 80% of the players in the hydrogen sector in France.
But above all, its subsoil is rich in large saline cavities, which are the key to massive hydrogen storage.
The project will both boost this sector of excellence, create jobs, promote the emergence of training centers in the area… and of course improve air quality.
ENGIE's ambitions in hydrogen know no borders.
On the other side of the world, on the island of Semakau, off the coast of Singapore, the leader in energy transition is developing a micro-grid, comprising an electrolyser system and fuel cells, which converts solar energy and renewable hydrogen wind turbine, and vice versa.
The hydrogen can then power an electric vehicle by means of a fuel cell, or be reinjected into the network in the form of electricity.
This demonstrator aims to prove that a renewable and self-sufficient energy system can meet the needs in electricity, but also in mobility, of isolated territories.
Produced on site, renewable hydrogen contributes to economic activity and strengthens the energy independence of regions, which also allows cities to reclaim their energy bills.
These are all reasons that push ENGIE to work hand in hand with all public and private partners to make renewable hydrogen a reality accessible to all.
“The energy transition, in particular thanks to the development of green hydrogen produced from renewable energies, creates local jobs.
This is an opportunity that we must seize, ”
concludes Gwenaelle Avice-Huet, Deputy CEO of ENGIE and member of the Board of Directors of the Hydrogen Council.
A godsend therefore, in France and abroad.