EWI Insights: Green hydrogen in the european context

As part of the EWI Insights webinar series, researchers Jun.-Prof. Dr. Oliver Ruhnau and Tobias Leibfritz presented the findings of two recent publications on the criteria for producing green hydrogen (“renewable fuels of non-biological origin”, RFNBO). The event was moderated by Dr.-Ing. Ann-Kathrin Klaas.

In the first part, Jun.-Prof. Dr. Oliver Ruhnau, Research Scientist at EWI, presented the new EWI Working Paper “Green hydrogen support with overlapping climate policies”. Together with co-author Prof. Dr. Paul Lehmann, he shows that hydrogen support policies without RFNBO criteria can reduce subsidies for renewable energy and increase market-based renewable generation. The authors attribute this to higher market values for renewable electricity driven by additional demand from hydrogen production. However, the extra electricity demand can also raise overall power prices and the CO₂ price in emissions trading. While RFNBO criteria can dampen the increase in emissions and electricity prices, they tend to raise hydrogen prices and the subsidies required for renewables. As a result, hydrogen-related system costs rise by 2 to 7 percent. “If electrolyzers respond flexibly to electricity prices, this can lower emissions and power prices as well as overall system costs,” says Ruhnau.

In the second part of the event, Research Associate Tobias Leibfritz presented the EWI study “Green hydrogen production under RFNBO criteria,” which examines the effects of the RFNBO criteria from two perspectives: on the one hand, from a system perspective in a developed European hydrogen market, and on the other hand, from the perspective of an individual electrolyzer at the current stage, i.e., at the beginning of the market ramp-up. The EWI models HYEBRID (system perspective) and SOPHIAA (optimal power supply for an electrolyzer) were used for the analysis. From a system perspective, the impact of the RFNBO criteria is rather low; however, a market ramp-up is necessary for such a system to be established. “To achieve this, projects must also be economically viable at the current time,” says Leibfritz. “The business case perspective shows that the RFNBO criteria can increase the production costs for green hydrogen in Germany by up to 20 percent, making market ramp-up more difficult from the project developers’ perspective.”

The online workshop series EWI Insights has been held around four times a year since 2020 and is aimed at experts from business, science and politics who are interested in scientific findings from the world of energy. EWI researchers offer insights into the institute’s current studies and analyses. Information on current EWI events can be found here.