欧盟计划到2025年将氢电解槽产能提高10倍

据NRCHUB网站6月20日莫斯科报道，6月16日，欧盟委员会启动了一项计划，到2025年将欧盟的绿色氢电解槽生产能力提高10倍。

今年5月首次宣布的这项电解槽合作计划，将把制造商和零部件供应商聚集在一起，以提高电解槽的产能——用于生产可再生能源氢的技术——从目前估计的每年1.75吉瓦提高到17.5吉瓦。

该计划与欧盟委员会的REPowerEU计划有关。REPowerEU是一项广泛的战略，旨在结束对大国化石燃料的依赖，其中包括到2030年实现国内年产氢1000万吨的目标，这需要90吉瓦到100吉瓦的电解槽产能。

欧盟委员会负责欧洲绿色协议的执行副主席在一份声明中表示，氢是欧洲未来能源主权的重要组成部分。欧洲氢气行业的发展速度表明，我们可以实现经济脱碳，确保我们不依赖大国化石燃料。

电解槽合作计划是在欧盟委员会的欧洲清洁氢联盟第四次会议上发起的，该联盟聚集了1600多个组织，以支持可再生和低碳氢的部署。

在上个月宣布新的合作伙伴关系时，欧盟委员会和包括西门子能源公司、Nel ASA、SunFire公司和康明斯公司在内的20位行业高管表示，欧盟已经在氢技术方面处于世界领先地位，但其雄心是将其转变为全球商业领导地位。

该伙伴关系的另一成员、氢能源欧洲公司的首席政策官弗赖尔将其描述为“推动欧盟工业领导地位，促进制造商、关键材料供应商和决策者之间加强合作的催化剂”。

弗赖尔在一份声明中表示，我们需要在战略层面上努力，确保欧洲消耗的可再生氢采用欧洲技术，并有助于实现公正的能源转型，为欧洲创造就业增长。电解槽合作计划是实现这一目标的正确途径。

欧盟委员会指出，廉价原材料的供应是欧洲扩大电解槽生产的一个挑战。在很多情况下，随着近几个月大宗商品价格的飙升，绿色氢气行业不得不与其他行业争夺原材料。欧盟委员会表示，将在电解槽原材料供应方面与欧盟及经济区以外的国家合作。

6月16日，牛津能源研究所高级研究员兼氢研究负责人兰伯特在英国《金融时报》伦敦氢峰会上表示，目前，我们对南非等国的某些市场区域过于依赖。

电解槽制造商还看到了阻碍他们迅速提高产能的监管和财务瓶颈。欧盟在5月底提出了一项立法，制定了关于如何使氢变得绿色的规则草案，旨在支持可再生氢市场的扩大。然而由于一些参与者认为其中一些严格要求，可能会使得一些计划中项目中止。

挪威电解槽制造商Nel首席执行官在英国《金融时报》的活动上表示，“我们需要看到(最终投资决定)开始流动，(并且)开始赚钱。我们已经准备好了。现在，这基本上取决于委员会政策决定”。

郝芬 译自 MRCHUB

原文如下：

EU targets tenfold increase in production of hydrogen electrolyzers by 2025

The European Commission launched an initiative June 16 to increase the European Union's green hydrogen electrolzyer manufacturing capacity tenfold by 2025.

The Electrolyzer Partnership, first announced in May, will bring together manufacturers and component suppliers to ramp up the production of electrolyzers — the technology used to produce renewable-powered hydrogen — to 17.5 GW per year from an estimated 1.75 GW today.

The initiative is linked to the commission's REPowerEU plan — its wide-ranging strategy to end dependence on Russian fossil fuels, which includes an aim to reach 10 million tonnes of annual domestic hydrogen production by 2030, requiring between 90 GW and 100 GW of electrolyzer capacity.

"Hydrogen is an essential part of Europe's future energy sovereignty," Frans Timmermans, executive vice president for the European Green Deal at the commission, said in a statement. "The speed of development of the European hydrogen sector shows that we can decarbonize our economy and secure our independence from fossil fuels."

The Electrolyzer Partnershp was launched at the fourth meeting of the commission's European Clean Hydrogen Alliance, which brings together more than 1,600 organizations to support the deployment of renewable and low-carbon hydrogen.

In announcing the new partnership last month, the commission and 20 industry executives — including from manufacturers Siemens Energy AG, Nel ASA, SunFire GmbH and Cummins Inc. — said the EU is already leading the world on hydrogen technology but the ambition is to transform this into global commercial leadership.

Daniel Fraile, chief policy officer at lobby group Hydrogen Europe, another member of the partnership, described it as "a catalyst for advancing EU industrial leadership and fostering increased cooperation between manufacturers, key material suppliers and policymakers."

"We need to work at a strategic level to ensure that the renewable hydrogen consumed in Europe is done with European technology and that it contributes to a just energy transition creating jobs growth in Europe," Fraile said in a statement. "The Electrolyzer Partnership is the right vehicle to get this done."

The commission noted the availability of affordable raw materials as one challenge to upscaling Europe's production of electrolyzers. In many cases, the green hydrogen sector has to compete for materials with other industries, as the price of commodities has skyrocketed in recent months. The commission said it would work to partner with countries outside the EU and its economic zones on raw material supplies for electrolyzers.

"At the moment, we have too much dependence on South Africa ... for some of those components," Martin Lambert, senior research fellow and head of hydrogen research at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, said June 16 at the Financial Times' Hydrogen Summit in London. 

Electrolyzer manufacturers also see regulatory and financial bottlenecks that are preventing them from rapidly increasing their production capacity, the commission said. Legislation proposed by the EU at the end of May, laying out draft rules on what makes hydrogen green, aims to support the ramp-up of the renewable hydrogen market. However, it may stop some planned projects in their tracks because of what some players deem to be its strict requirements.

"We need the see [final investment decisions] start to flow [and] money start being made," Jon Andre Lokke, CEO of Norwegian electrolyzer-maker Nel, said at the Financial Times event. "We cannot be more ready. Now, it's basically up to the commission."