China set to become world’s largest green hydrogen importer by 2030

WORLD  10 June 2023 - 00:03

China could become the world's largest importer of green hydrogen by the end of this decade as it will need 13 million of imported hydrogen annually to decarbonize various industrial sectors, OilPrice.com reports citing Deloitte.

European demand for clean hydrogen will be around 10 million tons by 2030, while Japan and South Korea will each need 7.5 million tons of green hydrogen per year by the end of the decade, per the report, cited by South China Morning Post.

"Clean hydrogen will most likely play an important role in the future energy system – particularly in decarbonizing sectors that cannot be realistically electrified; the so-called "hard-to-abate" sectors," Deloitte said in the report. 

Green hydrogen is expected to be used in sectors such as methanol, refining, aviation, and road freight, and expand into other sectors such as shipping thereafter, the consultancy notes.

Various green hydrogen projects have been announced globally so far, but the capacity announced to date will need to triple by 2030 if the world is to stay on track with the net-zero by 2050 scenario of the International Energy Agency (IEA), according to Deloitte.

"Although announcements of clean hydrogen supply projects are accelerating, three times the capacity announced so far will need to come onstream by 2030, to meet expected demand," Deloitte's analysts wrote in the report.

Green hydrogen has gained new momentum after the energy crisis, with governments looking to support domestic hydrogen-making industries to meet climate targets and reduce dependence on foreign energy resources.

The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) in the United States includes tax credits for clean hydrogen, while the EU's renewables strategy includes the ambition to produce 10 million tons and import 10 million tons of renewable hydrogen in the EU by the end of this decade. The European Commission has outlined a 'hydrogen accelerator' concept to scale up the deployment of green hydrogen, which, the EC says, will contribute to accelerating the energy transition and decarbonizing the EU's energy system.   

Caliber.Az