Biggest planned green hydrogen projects globally August 2021

As of August 2021, the HyDeal Ambition project is the biggest green hydrogen project to have been announced yet. The venture is headed by a consortium of energy and construction companies, including natural gas distributor Enagás, as well as infrastructure and concession giant, Vinci Construction. The global green hydrogen pipeline of large-scale projects has a combined capacity of nearly 260 gigawatts, with most projects set to be located in Europe and Australia. Many utilities and renewable tech developers are keen to join the quickly growing industry. Between December 2020 and August 2021 alone, the scale of green hydrogen projects increased more than three-fold. The projected selling price of large-scale green hydrogen projects is between three and six U.S. dollars per kilogram when considering 2021 solar and wind costs. A decrease in renewable costs would also bring about a fall in end consumer prices.

What is green hydrogen?

Green hydrogen is hydrogen produced through electrolysis – a process whereby water is split into its two base elements, oxygen and hydrogen, via electricity that is derived from renewable sources. As of 2020, less than one percent of the global hydrogen production share was green, with the vast majority still generated using fossil fuels such as natural gas (and its component methane) and coal.

Projected retail prices

Today, global hydrogen consumption is still largely limited to refineries and fertilizer manufacturers. Refineries require hydrogen for the desulfurization of natural gas and petroleum to produce gasoline and diesel. Fertilizer manufacturers use hydrogen to produce ammonia, the base for agricultural fertilizers such as ammonium nitrate. Although hydrogen use is still quite limited, some within the energy sector hope it could help decarbonize the economy by facilitating its application as a fuel for transportation and within the steel sector.