Europe’s Renewable Power Giants Push for EU Hydrogen to Be Green

(Bloomberg) -- Europe’s green power industry groups have formed a lobbying effort to try to ensure a new wave of hydrogen in the European Union is made using power from wind and solar farms.

The EU plans to draw as much as 470 billion euros ($559 billion) toward hydrogen infrastructure in the coming decades as it attempts to reach climate neutrality by the middle of the century. The gas could be used across industry, power and electrification of transport.

The Renewable Hydrogen Coalition is a joint initiative by industry groups Wind Europe and Solar Power Europe, which have members that are some of the biggest renewable power developers in the world including Iberdrola SA, Enel SpA and Orsted A/S.

The new Renewable Hydrogen Coalition aims to help ensure that the bulk of the new hydrogen capacity is created using renewable power, rather than fossil fuels.

“The Renewable Hydrogen Coalition will be essential to contribute to the current policy debates and ensure that only cost-efficient and carbon neutral energy solutions for the decarbonisation are pushed forward,” said Ignacio Sanchez-Galan, chief executive officer of Iberdrola.

The Renewable Hydrogen Coalition plans to focus on issues such as the traceability of hydrogen and scaling up electrolysis.

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