FEATURES

BRUSSELS SEMINAR KICK STARTS EUROPEAN HYDROGEN PROJECT – CAMBRENSIS REPORT

In Brussels on Monday16 June 2003, EU President Romano Prodi, opening the European Commission seminar The Hydrogen Economy: A Bridge to Sustainable Energy, declared that Europe should aim to complete the shift to a fully integrated hydrogen economy, with renewable energy for hydrogen production, by mid-century. He accepted that this was ambitious but said that it was essential to tackle the problems of climate change and local air pollution and to provide fuel security for the European Union. The vision produced by the High Level Group was to be commended, he said.

Transport Commissioner Loyala de Palacio explained that demand for energy was growing vigorously and expected to increase at nearly 2% each year over the next twenty years. New energy technologies would be essential to maintain quality of life and environment with security. Hydrogen and fuel cells would play an important part, she said, in achieving the European Union’s goal of achieving 20% of alternative fuels in road transport by 2020.

An international agreement between Europe and the U.S.A. was announced by EU Research Commissioner Philippe Bousquin. M Bousquin said that a considerable effort was required to reduce the costs of hydrogen technology and that an international effort offered the best prospect of a rapid development of markets for new energy carriers and conversion technologies.

U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham praised the European initiative on hydrogen. The shift to hydrogen, he said, needed international action and he was very pleased to join with Europe in the necessary research. There was a high level of interest in the United States in new energy technologies, he said, because of the influence they would have on reducing health impacts of air pollution, increasing energy security and addressing the long-term potential challenge of climate change. A significant investment in research had been agreed. For example, the US had committed to nearly $2 billion in a Clean Coal Power Initiative and a further $1 billion in the design of a fully integrated coal plant to produce heat power and hydrogen with carbon with carbon sequestration. Research and development of hydrogen vehicles and infrastructure, Mr Abraham said, will be $1.7 billion over the next five years.

Mr Abraham invited the European Union and its constituent member states to join the United States in forming a new alliance, the International Partnership for the Hydrogen Economy. He added that his Department was ready to convene a first meeting of the Partnership and was prepared to move rapidly to achieve a first session in the autumn.

During the seminar, experts from across the European Union, the U.S.A. and Japan described the tremendous technical progress that has been achieved over the last few years and the considerable future potential for hydrogen and fuel cell technologies. It was clear that there are many viable technologies for energy conversion awaiting the benefits of cost reduction through large-scale production and wide availability of suitable energy carriers. The ultimate aim, clearly, was to produce hydrogen using renewable energy sources, wind or solar, for example, but that this was a long way off. Many experts spoke of the need for a transition period during which hydrogen would be produced by other routes, conversion of fossil fuel, for example. There was much debate about the viability of these different routes but little by way of systematic analysis of the impacts these would have on carbon budgets.

EU Environment Commissioner Margot Wallström spoke of the urgent need to tackle environmental problems and accepted that, though hydrogen production by renewable energy sources was the final goal, there were many possible pathways to this goal. Europe needed a road map to guide it. She made it clear, though, that any routes that placed the European commitment to Kyoto in jeopardy would be completely unacceptable. She raised the question of sequestration of carbon as a possible part of a production process for hydrogen, but said that there was much to do before this was a viable option. Energy efficiency, Mrs Wallström said, was the third pillar of a European policy on sustainable energy, and would be as important as the others, hydrogen and renewable energy.

In summing up, Philippe Busquin reiterated the Commission’s commitment to the long term goal and spoke of the need for a research effort equal to the task. There would be considerable further investment through European research funds but industrial input was also needed. In particular, he said, there was a need to understand the policy framework for the hydrogen economy, to set out codes and standards and to develop a climate of public understanding. Local initiatives, he said would be essential.

Delegates leaving the Seminar on Tuesday evening were agreed that the event had given new momentum to the European drive towards a hydrogen economy and placed Europe with the U.S.A. and Japan as world leaders. The task now was to ensure that industry and governments worked closely together to ensure rapid uptake of technologies in markets.

Meanwhile a cautionary note on the potential greenhouse effects of hydrogen leakages was sounded in a recent CalTech report in the journal Science. This report reflected very similar conclusions to those announced by Dr Dick Derwent of the UK’s Meteorological Office at Cambrensis’ Hydrogen Economy Seminar in London in January 2003.

Meanwhile, Cambrensis is launching its Renewables and Hydrogen Contact Group with a joint event in Cardiff, Wales with the Future Technologies Group of the Welsh Development Agency on Friday 26th September 2003, which will co-incide with a larger hydrogen conference in London. This will provide an opportunity to review the EU’s recent policy initiatives on hydrogen and to compare them with recent US initiatives. Cambrensis Director William Wilson gave a presentation at this year’s annual meeting of the U.S. National Hydrogen Association in Washington D.C. in March, and Cambrensis Associate Dr John Murlis attended the EU hydrogen conference in Brussels in June 2003.

For further information:

EU conference: “The hydrogen economy – a bridge to sustainable development”
Keynote speeches, conference presentations, posters and participants’ contact details:
www.cordis.lu/fp6/sustdev_h2.htm

EU High Level Group on hydrogen and fuel cells:
http://europa.eu.int/comm/research/energy/nn/nn_rt_hlgl_en.html

Welsh Development Agency Future Technologies Group
Marlize Palmer, Project Manager
marlize.palmer@wda.co.uk
www.futurewales.com

Welsh Development Agency
www.wda.co.uk

Cambrensis Renewables and Hydrogen Contact Group
William Wilson, Director
wwilson@cambrensis.org

and see What's New for dates of future meetings. Present outline programme:

Cardiff, Wales 26 September 2003: EU and US hydrogen initiatives
London 28 November 2003 - Carbon Sequestration
London 30 January 2004 - Renewables Targets