This year we have been fortunate to be able to come to Zaragoza for two days to talk about hydrogen. It has been very enriching to talk with the key players in the sector, and in this sense, we are very happy. This has been possible thanks to the company that organized the event, ATA Insights, to whom we are grateful for the enormous effort involved in organizing an event as well as they have done. A thousand thanks.
As a reflection on the event, we would like to comment on a very recurring aspect of the talks: the profitability of green hydrogen. We have heard a lot about it, and as a general trend, it seems that renewable hydrogen is not profitable because it does not cost €1.5/kg. In this regard, we think this is a mistaken view, and we want to explain why.
There are large consumers who use hydrogen at €1.5-2/kg, but those are the large consumers, those who already consume hydrogen on an industrial scale or, better said, on a large scale. Indeed, anyone who wants to sell green hydrogen there will have to compete with grey hydrogen, which is priced below €2/kg (note that this hydrogen mainly comes from natural gas reforming, and the price of gas is skyrocketing, not to mention the associated CO2 emissions). However, there are more niches, more sectors where hydrogen can be sold, for example, within the industrial sector, the chemical industry, the glass industry, the steel industry, etc. These companies have been buying hydrogen for years; do you know at what price? We’ll tell you: at €6, €7, €8, €9, or even €10 per kg. In a laboratory, they buy it at €100 per kg. Evidently, it is a matter of scale; what quantity of hydrogen is sold? Now, a new question, is a renewable hydrogen project profitable at that price? You already know the answer. Evidently, these are smaller projects but still on the MW scale. Why don’t we start there?
We have talked about projects where we replace grey hydrogen with green, but what if we replace another vector/fuel with hydrogen? Do we need a price of €2/kg? No, not at all. Surely with hydrogen sold at €8/kg, it can compete against diesel. That’s why projects like the one in Barcelona, the TMB buses, can emerge.
To summarize, don’t focus on reaching €1.5/kg; focus on finding the profitable project and compete against the previous fuel/vector and displace it.
If you still have doubts, write to us at info@leanhydrogen.whdev.es, and we will help you with whatever you need to promote your hydrogen project. We take this opportunity to inform you that the PERTES are about to be released, and if you need an SME in the consortium that also knows a lot about hydrogen, here we are.
