New Publication: The ´Hydrogen Economy´ in the United States and the European Union: Regulating Innovation to Combat Climate Change
I had the honour to contribute a chapter to Donald Zillman, Martha Roggenkamp, Leroy Paddock and Lee Godden (eds). `Innovation in Energy Law and Technology´ (Oxford University Press, 2018). My colleague Prof. Joshua Fershee of West Virginia University and me explored the legal perspectives for the creation of `Hydrogen Economies´ in the US and the EU. We used the example of fuel-cell cars and power-to-gas to illustrate legal possibilities and barriers. The book is available here. The introduction of the chapter is reproduced below.
Hydrogen is the most abundant element in
our universe. It makes up 75 per cent of its mass and 90 per cent of its
molecules.[1]
Conveniently, hydrogen never runs out, making it a `forever fuel´.[2]
According to proponents of hydrogen use, the abundance of hydrogen means that
every human being has access to it, making hydrogen the first truly democratic
energy in history.[3]
Moreover, because hydrogen does not
contain a single carbon atom, it emits no carbon dioxide at the point of use.[4] The
Australian electrochemist John Bockris, who created the term `hydrogen
economy´, summed up the concept in 2002:
`boiled down to its minimalist description,
the Hydrogen Economy means that hydrogen would be used to transport energy from
renewable sources over long distances and to store it (e.g. for supply to
cities) in large amounts.´[5]
Hydrogen would become the primary energy
source for our cars, homes, which would be powered not by polluting fossil
fuels, but by hydrogen from pollution-free domestic sources.[6]
However, the reality of worldwide hydrogen
use is rather sobering. To date, hydrogen has been almost exclusively used as
feedstock for industrial applications (refineries)[7]
and in fertilizer-production.[8] Crucially,
both sectors meet their hydrogen-demand by hydrogen produced from or with the
help of fossil fuels. 96 per cent of hydrogen is currently produced from fossil
fuels,[9] which
generates significant quantities of greenhouse gases[10]
and a mere 4 per cent are derived from renewable sources.[11]
The latter, hydrogen produced from renewable energy sources is referred to as
`green hydrogen´, while the former, hydrogen produced from fossil fuels is called
`grey hydrogen´.[12]
`Green´ hydrogen comes from two primary
sources. First, there are biomass-based production technologies, and second,
electrolysis based on electricity from renewable sources can play a leading
role.[13]
Biomass is the cheapest of all renewables, but has a limited potential for
hydrogen, due to the competition between hydrogen, biofuels, and other uses for
biomass.[14]
Offshore wind via electrolysis could, therefore, play a very important role in
hydrogen production after 2020.[15]
The creation of a `hydrogen economy´ is currently
driven by the same two concerns around the globe. First, the ever-increasing
amount of greenhouse gas emissions accelerates climate change. [16] Second, the security of our energy supplies
is critical to a safe and productive society.[17]
From a climate change perspective only the
use of renewable energy sources to generate hydrogen is an option. Although
hydrogen as an automotive fuel is virtually emission-free at the point of use, the
production of ´grey´ hydrogen results in high carbon dioxide emissions.[18]
Where hydrogen is produced from coal and used as car-fuel, CO2 emissions
actually increase by 25 per cent on a well-to-wheel basis, compared to the CO2
emissions of conventionally fuelled cars.[19]
Moreover, in a `hydrogen economy´ the need
to import fossil fuels from volatile regions could be diminished as hydrogen
can be produced domestically.[20] The
projected increase in global energy demand and the economic and geopolitical
implications of possible shortcomings in the supply of oil have been major
drivers of the hydrogen debate.[21]
The recent development of hydrogen as an
energy carrier occurred in two waves. A
first wave, which did not yet differentiate between `green` and `grey`
hydrogen, started in the late 1990s and peaked during the 2000s in the US. Major
automakers have spent more than 2 billion US Dollars there developing
hydrogen-fuel-cell-powered cars, buses, and trucks.[22] Hydrogen-fuel
vehicles could play a critical role in reducing greenhouse gas emission in the
United States where the
transportation sector accounts for 34 percent of all US carbon emissions.[23]
However, this development stagnated
recently[24]
and a second wave of hydrogen enthusiasts focussed more on `green` hydrogen and
its integration into the energy system. To help with this integration of
intermittent renewable energy a technology called Power-to-Gas was developed from
the late 2000s onwards. It converts excess electricity to hydrogen and this
hydrogen can be stored for later re-conversion to electricity.[25] The
development and efforts to accelerate this technology accumulate in the EU.
The article is focussing on these two
waves of hydrogen technologies
to ‘green’ the transport and the energy sector: hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles and
Power-to-Gas. It scrutinizes the legal frameworks of the two major economic
areas, the USA and the EU, where the respective developments were
kick-started. First, the development of hydrogen-fuelled cars in the United
States will be discussed. Afterwards, the article focuses on the current and
emerging regulatory framework in the EU for Power-to-Gas and hydrogen
transportation as well as storage.
The successful introduction of both technologies will depend on an accompanying
legal framework to facilitate a viable market that may need some form of
subsidization or a corresponding price on carbon to be successful.
[1] See `Hydrogen´ in `The
Columbia Encyclopaedia´ (6th edition 2001).
[2] Peter Hoffmann `The Forever Fuel: The Story of Hydrogen´
(1981) 1.
[3] Jeremy Rifkin `The Hydrogen Economy´ (Tarcher 2002) 9
(hereinafter: Rifkin).
[4] Rifkin 8.
[5] John Bockris `The Origin
of Ideas as a Hydrogen Economy and its Solution to the Decay of the Environment´ (2002) 27 International Journal of
Hydrogen Energy 731-740.
[6] Joseph J Romm `The Hype about Hydrogen: Fact and Fiction in
the Race to Save the Climate´ (2004) 3 (hereinafter: Romm).
[7] Hydrogen in a refinery is
often derived from catalytic reforming of naphtha by steam to produce a light
gasoline with a higher octance number, but hydrogen is also generated in
smaller amounts by a common process used in refineries, referred to as
`hydrocracking´ see Michael Ball, Werner Weindorf and
Ulrich Bünger `Hydrogen Production´ in Michael Ball and Martin Wietschel (eds.)
`The Hydrogen Economy: Opportunities and
Challenges´ (2009) 279 (hereinafter: Ball/Weindorf/Bünger Hydrogen
Production).
[8] The Hydrogen Council `How
hydrogen empowers the energy transition´ (January 2017) 17 respectively ava
http://hydrogeneurope.eu/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/20170109-HYDROGEN-COUNCIL-Vision-document-FINAL-HR.pdf (hereinafter: Hydrogen Council).
[9] International Energy Agency `Energy Technology Essentials Hydrogen
Production & Distribution´ page 4 table 1 https://www.iea.org/publications/freepublications/publication/iea-energy-technology-essentials-hydrogen-production--distribution.html
(hereinafter: IEA Hydrogen). Some
sources even speak of up to 99 per cent hydrogen from fossil fuels, see
Hydrogen Council 17.
[10] Romm 3.
[11] Ball/Weindorf/Bünger
Hydrogen Production 279.
[12] Michael Ball `Why
Hydrogen?´ in Michael Ball and Martin Wietschel (eds.) `The Hydrogen Economy: Opportunities and Challenges´ (2009) 38/39
(hereinafter: Ball); Rifkin 185-192.
[13] Ball/Seydel/Wietschel/Stiller 399. ´Michael Ball et al. in Michael Ball and Martin Wietschel (eds.) `The Hydrogen Economy: Opportunities and
Challenges´ (2009) 399 (hereinafter: Ball/Seydel/Wietschel/Stiller).
[14] Ball/Seydel/Wietschel/Stiller 418.
[15] Ball/Seydel/Wietschel/Stiller 418.
[16] Ball 8.
[17] Ibid.
[18] Werner Weindorf and Ulrich Bünger `Energy-chain analysis of
hydrogen and its competing alternative fuels for transport´ in Michael Ball and
Martin Wietschel (eds.) `The Hydrogen
Economy: Opportunities and Challenges´ (2009) 225-228 and 248.
[19] Ball/Seydel/Wietschel/Stiller 431/432.
[20] Ball 12-16.
[21] Ball 8
[22] Rifkin 9.
[23] The White House,
United States Mid-Century Strategy for Deep Decarbonization,, http://unfccc.int/files/focus/long-term_strategies/application/pdf/us_mid_century_strategy.pdf at 41, Figure 4.9.
[24] See the reasons in Romm 3,
4
[25] Rifkin 9; for more
details see section on Power-to-Gas below.
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