Thursday, 01 July 2021
International registrar DNV, headquartered in Norway, has released a report dubbed 'Rising to the challenge of a hydrogen economy'. The report includes the findings of a comprehensive industry survey, looking at sentiment with regards to hydrogen technology deployment and development.
Respondents included more than one-thousand representatives from the hydrogen economy, geographically spanning eighty different countries around the world. The report also details interviews with seven industry leaders.
The breakdown into groups suggested that electricity industry participants had the highest involvement with green hydrogen (with 67% having activities associated with green hydrogen), while the Oil and Gas industry showed the highest association with grey/brown hydrogen and blue hydrogen, at 32% and 35% respectively.
The short-term prospects for hydrogen among respondents were generally seen as positive, with the majority of respondents (74%) suggesting the outlook has improved in the last year, and is set to improve further for the upcoming twelve months (67% of respondents).
Hydrogen was also slated for a more prominent role in company balance sheets, with 64% of respondents expecting hydrogen to account for more than 10% of their spending/revenue to 2030, and 26% expecting it comprise more than half their organisation's spending/revenue.
Somewhat expectedly, the major perceived hurdle to renewable hydrogen deployment was the high cost of green and blue hydrogen, with 38% of respondents listing this as a major concern. Also of similar concern was regulatory changes (or lack thereof) and lack of investment as potential roadblocks to a thriving hydrogen economy.
When questioned on the key to unlocking the hydrogen economy, survey respondents pointed overwhelmingly (80%) to effective carbon-pricing regulations. Hydrogen standards and strategies, as well as government-funded infrastructure were also listed as important enablers.
Overall, respondents agreed upon the potential of hydrogen to drive a global, low-carbon energy system (net agree, 84%), although they were a little less bullish when it came to organisational and national goals that had been set thus far (33% disagree/43% agree that goals set were realistic and achievable), with many believing that the practical barriers to deploying hydrogen are underestimated (71%).
The full report is available on the DNV website, for free with registration (here).
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