Billionaire Jim Ratcliffe's British group Ineos has announced that it wants to invest more than 2 billion euros in the production of green hydrogen, a key clean energy for decarbonizing the industrial sector.
“This will be the largest investment ever made in Europe in electrolysis projects aimed at producing green hydrogen,” announced the company, specifying that its subsidiary Inovyn is already the largest European electrolysis operator. .
As part of this investment, factories will be built in Norway, Germany and Belgium over the next 10 years.
Investments are also planned in the United Kingdom and France.
The first unit built will be a 20 MW electrolyzer plant to produce clean hydrogen by electrolysis of water, powered by zero carbon electricity, in Norway.
In Germany, Ineos plans to build a 100 MW electrolyser to produce green hydrogen at its Cologne site.
"Europe is calling for more investment in green hydrogen and Ineos' announcement today shows our determination to play a leading role in this important new fuel," added Jim Ratcliffe.
Hydrogen to decarbonise
Hydrogen can be produced in different ways including with fossil fuels. This is even what is currently done in the majority of cases. Today, out of approximately 120 million tonnes of hydrogen produced per year, green hydrogen represents less than 1%, far behind gray hydrogen with a production cost of between 1 to 2 USD / kg and to l origin of 830 million tonnes of CO2 emissions per year.
Except that there is a much cleaner solution with what is called "green hydrogen" produced by electrolysis of water using electricity from renewable sources (wind, solar or hydroelectric). Unlike the production of pure electricity, hydrogen is a storable and transportable “fuel” whose yields are more or less the same whatever the weather conditions. But especially with this energy, CO2 emissions are much more limited than fossil fuels. A hydrogen car that only releases water from the exhaust.
In fact, hydrogen, which we have known for a long time, is seen today as one of the best assets for decarbonizing heavy industries which contribute to global warming.
According to Bloomberg, hydrogen could represent a market of 700 billion dollars per year by 2050.
Countries and companies on the starting line
All countries, China in the lead, Germany (with a plan of 9 billion euros) are setting up investments. Emmanuel Macron in his recently announced “France 2030” plan wished to make France “the world leader in green hydrogen”. “I say it by fully assuming it. This is part of a sector where we can still be a leader because we have strengths, including that of nuclear power, ”he insisted, adding:“ if we produce hydrogen using fossil fuels, it does not. is useless, ”continued Emmanuel Macron. “Our strategy is to do a lot with us because we have the possibility of doing very low-carbon electrolysis”.
"By 2030, France must be able to count on its soil at least two gigafactories of electrolysers and will massively produce hydrogen and all the technologies useful for its use" concluded Emmanuel Macron. The State has pledged 7 billion euros by 2030 for this sector, including two billion within two years. Other projects are already emerging in France, where the French company Lhyfe has just opened the world's first green hydrogen production plant connected to wind turbines in Vendée. It plans to open around thirty similar sites within five years.
Still, this development still has a big thorn.
To compete with other energies, “green” hydrogen will have to seriously lower its production costs.
Otherwise industries and transport will continue for many years to rely on fossil fuels ...
