The effectiveness of green hydrogen

Journalist Khamal Ahmed moderates this meeting between three leading energy experts: Barry Carruthers, director of hydrogen at ScottishPower, the UK subsidiary of Iberdrola; Fiona Harvey, environment correspondent for The Guardian; and Professor Nigel Brandon, chair of Sustainable Development in Energy at Imperial College London.

There is a global commitment within the climate agenda established in the Paris Agreement that states the need to prevent temperatures from rising more than 1.5 degrees Celsius in the next decade to avoid irreversible damage. At this point, green hydrogen is presented as a key tool on the road to decarbonisation.

Sceptics point out that it would require huge investment to ensure that the hydrogen we use is truly green. And they warn that a focus on this element could divert attention from other important issues in the energy transition, including the electrification of our homes, transport or industry. Against this backdrop, the experts pose a key challenge: how to reduce the perception that it is a hoax? 

Truly carbon-free hydrogen can only be produced with renewable electricity, and at the moment green hydrogen represents only a small fraction of total hydrogen production, as it is an element that is not found naturally on earth, but in the sun, in water or in some natural gases.

 It has become essential that the focus broadens and begins to consider the possibilities in areas beyond the transport industry, where green hydrogen tends to have the greatest development.