On Tuesday 28 March, Glennmont Partners from Nuveen held a webinar on Power-to-X Green Hydrogen. The event was chaired by Glennmont CFO, Francesco Cacciabue, with speakers Anders Christian Nordstrøm, COO of Power-to-X division at Ørsted, and François Pacquet, Impact Director at the Renewable Hydrogen Coalition. This webinar took an in- depth look at green hydrogen after previous webinars on its top level uses. Anders Christian Nordstrøm focussed on the ways in which it can decarbonise industries such as chemicals, steel and transportation, while François Pacquet covered regulations and frameworks through which the EU and countries around the world are encouraging the expansion of hydrogen and Power-to-X.
Francesco Cacciabue, CFO at Glennmont, began by introducing Glennmont Partners from Nuveen – one of world’s leading renewable energy infrastructure investors with €4bn under management*.
Anders Christian Nordstrom, COO of Power-to-X division at Ørsted, introduced Ørsted as the largest global developer of offshore wind, who also have a sizeable presence in onshore wind, bioenergy and renewable hydrogen, and green fuels. He explained Power-to-X is a means of achieving decarbonisation in sectors where electrification is hard or impossible, such as heavy transport, steel, chemicals, and refineries. On top of this, he expounded the value of renewable hydrogen and green fuels acting as a failsafe for intermittency issues in the supply of renewable energy. Taken together, these mean green hydrogen and its derivatives are forecast to be key enablers for the future global energy system.
Anders also talked attendees through the process of creating green H2 through electrolysis, which currently sits as the second most efficient alternative to electrification. He further laid out how the hydrogen can be converted to eMethanol, which is gaining traction as a clean fuel for the maritime, aviation, and chemicals sectors, or eAmmonia for fertiliser.
In terms of the value chain for green hydrogen, Anders described it as still immature, and without fully developed end uses for green hydrogen. As a result, he set out how partnerships between different organisations is key for projects in this area, and especially with offtakers as there is no established market. He said this approach has been crucial in Ørsted’s green hydrogen projects underway in EU, UK and the USA, including a GW-sized project starting in the Netherlands. He concluded that to facilitate the green transition we need electrification where possible, and green molecules to fill the blanks.
François Pacquet, Impact Director at the Renewable Hydrogen Coalition, introduced the Renewable Hydrogen Coalition as the EU trade body for renewable hydrogen across the entire value chain. He said there are three reasons to invest in renewable hydrogen. First, there is an urgent need for the planet to decarbonise. Second, it has less price volatility than fossil fuels and is getting cheaper. Finally, it has huge capacity to scale, even if just to take over the amount of capacity used by blue and grey hydrogen.
He also told attendees a strong policy approach is needed to create a viable hydrogen market, such as we’re currently seeing in Europe. To create this successful market, demand-side policies need to be enacted such as the binding targets which the EU has set in the sectors industry, transport, aviation and shipping. On the supply-side, he said the EU have also put forward rules over renewable hydrogen production, providing certainty for industry to invest. Finally, he set out how to bridge the cost gap, policymakers needs to create supporting institutions to scale up the market, such as the European Hydrogen Bank, forecast to be operational in Q3 2023.
François ended with a comparison between the USA’s IRA and the EU’s hydrogen framework. He advised the IRA gives stronger, more direct financial support but the EU has a better regulatory framework.
The session closed with a discussion between panellists and questions from the audience, on topics including how owners of clean energy assets can benefit from Power-to-X solutions, whether hydrogen taking up renewables capacity on the grid will drive up power prices, the suitability for hydrogen in traditional fossil fuel plants.
