'Europe on track to deliver 21GW green hydrogen electrolyser factory capacity by 2025'
But manufacturers are falling 4GW short of their own targets due to regulatory and financing issues, says H2 alliance
Hydrogen: hype, hope and the hard truths around its role in the energy transition
And it also took issue with the EU’s target of delivering 40% of its key infrastructure — including electrolysers — from European manufacturers, deriding it as confusing and lacking in ambition.
The 88% annual growth rate is based on ramp up from today’s capacity of 3.1GW, which is itself a 24% increase on the 2.5GW capacity reported at the signing of the ECHA’s Joint Declaration on electrolysers in May 2022.
But the industry will fall short of its maximum target set in the Joint Declaration by around 4GW by 2025.
But the European Commission prefers to use the 17.5GW figure as a reference point, Hydrogen Europe spokesperson said.
The reasons the electrolyser industry is falling short on the 25GW target are threefold, according to the ECHA.
Moreover, it complained that the EU’s plan to mandate that 40% of key climate infrastructure, including electrolysers, should be sourced from European manufacturers is insufficiently ambitious.
Europe has around 30% of all global electrolyser manufacturing capacity, and currently supplies almost all machines in its domestic market, it pointed out.
“Meeting 40% of the EU’s electrolyser needs seems to be less ambitious than the current state of play,” the report read, noting that it would amount to significantly less than the 25GW target outlined in the Joint Declaration.
Electrolysers should be subject to an industry-specific target, the ECHA said.
Financing presents another problem, specifically a “huge gap” between deployment ambitions and allocated funds, which it says would attract private sector investment.
But the ECHA called for further action, specifically for the EU’s multilateral bank, the European Investment Bank (EIB) to underwrite billions of euros of loans for electrolyser manufacturers.
The ECHA is a public-private partnership launched by the EU in 2020 to bring about clean hydrogen production in the bloc.
Its members include over 1,000 private businesses operating in the hydrogen industry, as well as trade associations, banks, research groups, universities and public bodies such as national energy departments, and civil society groups such as the Environmental Defense Fund and WWF.