Analysis of the European Strategy for Hydrogen: A Comprehensive Review
Begoña Vivanco-Martín, Alfredo Iranzo
Abstract
This review focuses on analysing the strategy and aspirations of the European Union within the hydrogen sector. This aim is achieved through the examination of the European Parliament’s hydrogen strategy, allowing for a study of actions and projects in hydrogen technologies. The Parliament’s hydrogen strategy is the document that provides the guideline of how the EU intends to function in the hydrogen sector and manages to cover a wide range of topics, all of them significant to represent the entirety of the hydrogen sector. It touches on subjects such as hydrogen demand, infrastructure, research, and standards, among others. The review discusses also the aspect that the EU intends to be a leader in the hydrogen sector, including the large-scale industrialization of key elements such as electrolysers, and this purpose is corroborated by the large number of associations, strategies, plans, and projects that are being established and developed by the European Union. The most important conclusions to learn from this analysis are that hydrogen has many of the right characteristics to make it the key to decarbonisation, especially in hard-to-abate sectors, and that it is bound to be one of the main actors in the imminent green transition. Moreover, hydrogen seems to be having its breakthrough, and this field’s development can have benefits not only from an environmental perspective but also from an economical one, enabling the way into the green transition and the fight against climate change.