1. The World's Top Green Hydrogen
Projects That Could Change the
World
Across the globe, there is a growing number of green hydrogen developments in the
renewable industry sector. These projects are pushing forward the ways in which we can
produce hydrogen and otherwise supply this largely clean fuel to power our future.
In 2021, the pipeline of planned green hydrogen projects globally exceeds 60 gigawatts,
roughly the equivalent of 187.5 million solar cells, 25,000 wind turbines, or to put it in
consumption perspective, enough to light 6.6 billion LED bulbs. Long story short, our
green hydrogen production capacity is expanding and 2021 has been a great year for
hydrogen development.
But what is green hydrogen? Essentially, these projects are hydrogen production projects
that generally involve an electrolyzation process and they are powered off of renewable
sources. Right now, Europe and Australia are leading the way on these projects, as they
look to be a greater part of the renewable energy future of tomorrow.
2. An animated gif demonstrating the electrolyzation process during the production of green hydrogen.
Energy flows from the solar panels to the andode and cathode, creating hydrogen gas and oxygen
gas in the process.
There is some bad news, however. While the pipeline we mentioned at the beginning of
this article was significant, it's important to note that this is just a pipeline. Experts
forecast that only about half of the current green hydrogen pipeline will be fully
operational in the next 15 years. To accelerate this, developers are hoping to leverage
government benefits and other renewables subsidies.
3. The main reason that green hydrogen is such an important process is that hydrogen by
itself is a fairly efficient and clean fuel. Hydrogen fuel cells can power cars with the only
emission being water. However, the traditional process of producing hydrogen is a
harmful one. In general, about 95 percent of hydrogen is produced in an energy-intensive
process that involves burning fossil fuels like natural gas. This means that while
hydrogen may be green on the consumer side, it has a pretty sizeable environmental
impact on the production side, making the fuel as a whole far less green.
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However, if the world was able to shift its hydrogen production to green hydrogen
processes, the entirety of the production cycle would be low-carbon, making hydrogen a
much more sustainable fuel to power our future.
In order to understand this industry further, let's take a look at how different countries
around the world are working on expanding their green hydrogen energy production
capabilities.
Green Hydrogen initiatives around the world
Renewables are now the fastest-growing energy industry, and hydrogen is growing along
with it. We're likely going to see the growth of many hydrogen production companies in
the next several decades, as it has the potential to be a green energy production
powerhouse.
4. A diagram depicting the versatile lifecycle which green hydrogen can take, through the
production process all the way through to usage. Source: Rh2network/Wikimedia
Spain has invested heavily in hydrogen production recently. They announced a $10.5
billion investment into Green Hydrogen technology over the next 10-years, with the end
goal being that hydrogen can help propel their trucking and shipping industry to zero-
emission outputs.
Specifically, Spain is aiming to produce green hydrogen electrolyzers with 4 gigawatts of
capacity in the next 10 years. These electrolyzers, the main way in which green hydrogen
is produced, utilize electricityto split water into hydrogen gas and oxygen gas. When the
hydrogen is burned in a fuel cell, it is oxygenated and transformed back into water.
Spain has made itself a haven for renewable energy, in part through policy but also
through geography. The landscape provides plenty of wind and sunshine, which makes it
perfect for wind and solar production. Right now, the country has built its supply up to 62
5. gigawatts of renewable energy, but this still isn't enough to replace fossil fuels in the
country.
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One of the biggest reasons that Spain is investing in green hydrogen is because they
currently produce a large amount of hydrogen through fossil fuel methods. This means
that investing in green hydrogen could replace those traditional production techniques,
allowing for a faster decrease in the nation's carbon footprint.
Spain, being part of the European Union, joins its other member countries in its
commitment to a renewable energy policy that focuses heavily on green hydrogen as part
of the future. The EU alone is hoping to bring its green hydrogen capacity up to 40
gigawatts in the next decade, which would be a significant growth. They're putting their
money where their mouth is, too, by committing to invest $430 billion into green
hydrogen during that span.
Saudi Arabia, the oil giant of the east is also investing heavily in green hydrogen
production projects. Specifically, they have teamed up with a US company, Air Products,
to develop a green hydrogen production plant that would be capable of producing 650
tons of green hydrogen fuel each and every day. All in all the project is receiving an
investment of $5 billion and could signal a turning tide in the green industry sector with
an energy giant such as Saudi Arabia embracing it so fully.
This one project is described as the world's largest green hydrogen energy project, which
is significant, as Saudi Arabia seeks to continue its dominance in the energy sector,
regardless of whether the fuel is oil, hydrogen, or natural gas.
The country of Chile is also working on its own green energy goals, one of the first in
South America. The first green hydrogen project in the region was recently launched in
the country, called the HyEx project. It's a solar farm capable of producing 2,000
megawatts of electricity; 1600 megawatts of that electricitywould then be utilized in the
electrolysis process to create 124,000 tons of compressed hydrogen every year.
6. Moving further east, Korea and Japan are leading the way among Asian countries when
it comes to green hydrogen investments. Both countries, specifically the industrial giants
within their countries such as Toyota and Hyundai, are pioneering hydrogen fuel cell
technology as one of the many future methods of clean transportation. Toyota has
developed the Mirai, and Hyundai has developed the Nexo. Neither of these automobiles
are hot sellers yet, largely because the hydrogen fuel market is still developing. Practical
and affordable hydrogen cars are essential to ensuring the growth of hydrogen fuel. After
all, if there's nothing to do with the fuel, then there's no reason to produce it.
In China, Siemens Energy is building a 1 MW hydrogen production system for a fueling
station in Beijing which will be the first-megawatt green hydrogen production project in
the country. The hydrogen fueling station will be located in one of three main
competition areas for the 2022 Winter Olympics.
Moving further south to Australia, they're leading the way in renewably produced green
hydrogen. Specifically, they are developing a 1,606,185 acre (6,500 square kilometers)
renewable energy farm that generates electricityprimarily through wind and sun. A
significant portion of the energy that is produced here will be immediately transformed
into hydrogen and ammonia through green processes. Coming in at a price tag of $16
billion, the project is ambitious, and project managers are projecting that it will be
completed sometime in the next 10 years.
7. This graph does a great job of demonstrating the useability timeline of green hydrogen in various
industries. There's a lot of development left to go, but in 2020 the world is poised for rapid
adoption. Source: Daniel Williams/Wikimedia
It is notable that as we've talked about all of these countries' efforts to develop green
hydrogen into one of the fuels of tomorrow, green hydrogen itself is a relatively new and
rapidly growing semi-renewable fuel source. As the market has grown, production costs
have become somewhat more favorable, at least enough to warrant greater investment
into the sector. At the end of the day, renewable fuels are still a money game, just like
fossil fuels — the more uses there are for green hydrogen, the more will be produced, and
the cheaper it will become.
For now, the future of green hydrogen around the world looks rather bright.
