The implementation of the EU’s carbon pricing scheme for road transport is crucial to drive the business case for electric and hydrogen trucks, Martin Lundstedt, CEO of the Volvo Group, told Euractiv in an interview.
Despite the recent change of direction in the European Parliament, the hydrogen industry continues to insist that the Commission adopts a delegated act on the so-called additionality principle, Jorgo Chatzimarkakis told EURACTIV in an interview.
New electric and hydrogen propulsion technology promises to slash the climate impact of taking to the skies, but there are still a host of engineering challenges to overcome before these aircraft enter commercial circulation, Eric Dalbiès of Safran told EURACTIV.
The objectives set by the Climate Air Energy Plan for Paris seek to meet the European and WHO standards on air pollution. In the French capital city, "this implies the phasing out of diesel vehicles in 2024 and the phasing out of gasoline-powered vehicles in 2030," Dan Lert said.
The way clean or low-carbon hydrogen is defined under the EU’s green finance taxonomy could have been more ambitious, with a higher emission saving threshold excluding all unabated fossil fuels from hydrogen manufacturing, says Jorgo Chatzimarkakis.
Ammonia has until now been used chiefly in the fertiliser industry as a way to return nitrogen to the soil. But it also has potential in boosting renewables – both as a replacement for hydrogen in long haul shipping and as a way of storing and transporting hydrogen.
Poland has welcomed the inclusion of hydrogen infrastructure in the European Commission’s recast regulation for cross-border energy networks. “It is critical for our region that this legislation is colour-blind and does not discriminate between different ‘types’ of hydrogen,” says Michał Kurtyka.
Before the Trans-Adriatic pipeline (TAP) was built, Italian businesses were paying a higher price for energy compared to their European peers, said Vugar Veysalov, head of external affairs at TAP. The new pipeline, which will also supply Greece and Bulgaria, will bring greater flexibility of prices, he told EURACTIV in an exclusive interview.
With Europe’s climate neutrality target soon becoming law, energy TSOs have launched joint scenarios to test gas and electricity networks against growing shares of renewables. Under current plans, they foresee 300-800 TWh of renewables feeding into electrolysers by 2050.
Europe has to get serious about the hydrogen economy if it really wants to reach net-zero emissions as quickly as possible, says Nils Anders Røkke. This is why decarbonised natural gas, using carbon capture and storage (CCS), will be crucial to ramp up hydrogen production in the short term, he argues.
The European Parliament's transport committee head, Karima Delli (Greens), spoke about the need to completely overhaul the transport industry to combat climate change, the next transport Commissioner and France's pick for EU internal market chief, in an interview with EURACTIV Slovakia.
Boasting 1,200 terawatt hours (TWh) of existing capacity, gas storage sites can be a formidable asset for Europe in the transition to a low-carbon economy, providing much-needed flexibility to a future energy system where gas and electricity will be more closely integrated, says Ilaria Conti.
Europe’s electricity and gas operators are currently working on a joint network plan based on a carbon budget which includes zero-emission scenarios for 2050. “And that automatically means there will be no fossil gas in the mix by then,” Jan Ingwersen told EURACTIV in an interview.
The production of so-called green hydrogen from wind and solar electricity is seen as a potential game-changer for the transition to a 100% renewable energy system. But getting there will take some time and some intermediary solutions will be needed, says Daan Peters.
The European gas industry is on the cusp of a green revolution similar to the one that took place in the electricity sector, with a greater variety of low-carbon gases feeding into the grid at the local level, says Jean-Marc …
As the European Union turns the page on a series of clean energy laws focused on electricity, attention is now turning to decarbonisation in the gas sector, with an upcoming gas package expected in 2020. And the power sector intends to play a central role there too.
Transport is widely accepted as a very difficult sector to decarbonise but one of the leading experts on all things freight and transport explained to EURACTIV.com how and why it needs to be done.
A new pilot facility under construction in northern Sweden will produce steel using hydrogen from renewable electricity. The only emissions will be water vapour, explains the CEO of Hybrit, the company behind the process, which seeks to revolutionise steelmaking.
Just as Europe is engaging in a fierce race to electrify transport, makers of natural gas vehicles are coming out with bullish projections, saying they expect their car fleet in Europe to multiply tenfold to 13 million vehicles in 2030 – a 10% market share that could reach 20-30% for trucks and buses.
The excess wind and solar electricity generated at times of oversupply could be used more systematically to produce synthetic gas, providing a convenient way of storing renewable energy that would otherwise be lost. The potential is huge, and can be used to heat homes during winter, argues Beate Raabe.
The mobility sector will be a mix of electric- and gas-fuelled vehicles, Eurogas President Klaus Schäfer told EURACTIV Slovakia.
