In her opening keynote the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen gives a vibrant status on progress achieved to date: “Today, I’m proud to share how far we’ve come. In just 12 months, Europe has seen Final Investment Decisions on over 2GW of renewable hydrogen projects. Investments in European hydrogen are set to grow by 140% in 2024, with Europe contributing nearly a third of global investments in electrolysers. Renewable hydrogen is here, it is growing, and this is only the beginning”.

The current coalition chairs from renewable energy company Ørsted and electrolyser manufacturer Nel Hydrogen also officially pass the torch to the newly elected co-chairs: Ana Quelhas, Chief Hydrogen Officer at renewable energy company EDP, leading global company in the energy transition to renewable energies, and Kim Hedegaard, CEO Power-to-X at technology manufacturer TOPSOE, world leader in catalysis and process technology, driving the transition to greener and more sustainable energy. The new co-chairs will officially take up their role on 1 January 2025 for 18 months.

Ana Quelhas, Chief Hydrogen Officer at EDP, says: “I am honoured to serve as co-chair following the strong leadership of Ørsted and Nel. Now, Europe’s top priority should be improving the competitiveness of renewable hydrogen to boost demand. In this early market phase, boosting and streamlining public funding at both national and European levels is paramount to close the funding gap, accelerate and scale up. Enabling access to affordable renewable hydrogen and creating green lead markets will be essential for the competitiveness of offtakers and end-user sectors”. Commission President adds, ”As demand shifts towards cleaner solutions, companies investing in renewable hydrogen today will hold a clear market advantage”.

In this regard, it is important to note that renewable electricity, in general, is already competitive. However, the current electricity system-constraints such as grid congestion and lack of interconnections-does not allow end consumers to take full advantage of the low costs of electricity from renewable sources. Therefore, to make renewable hydrogen truly affordable, it is necessary to overcome these challenges in the electricity system, which would ensure more efficient and affordable access to green energy, key to the competitiveness and development of renewable hydrogen.

Kim Hedegaard, CEO Power-to-X at TOPSOE, voices: “The EU has strong targets for renewable hydrogen deployment, but we need to ready our tools. The European Hydrogen Bank’s resilience criterion is a good starting point to scale up European manufacturing, bring economies of scale and strengthen Europe’s industrial leadership in strategic electrolyser technologies - all key foundations to kick-start the renewable hydrogen economy and help us reach our decarbonisation targets. Ensuring fair competition within a stronger single market should now be the focus. We look forward to working with the new EU policymakers, supporting organisations and the industry to make this transition happen.”

Now is the time to stay the course and scale up. With the right policies, Europe can build a competitive renewable hydrogen value chain, decarbonise, secure leadership in renewable hydrogen production, utilisation, and technologies, and enhance its security and resilience. So can the Green Deal become a successful Clean Industrial Deal powered by green growth.

The Renewable Hydrogen Coalition (RHC) promotes the critical role of renewable hydrogen to deliver the EU’s long-term decarbonisation goals. The Coalition is the voice of the value chain, including leading renewable energy suppliers, innovative start-ups, investors and industrial off-takers all dedicated to making Europe the global leader in renewable hydrogen solutions.

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