The city of Tokyo is to build its own green hydrogen projects on publicly owned land starting this year, while also launching a raft of renewable H2 subsidies, Japanese media reported yesterday (Wednesday).
According to Japanese newspaper
Nikkei, the metropolitan government will begin construction of three green hydrogen “units” in the fiscal year of 2024 (April 2024 to end of March 2025) with one unit in operation by the end of that period.
The three plants will be built on publicly owned land on Tokyo’s waterfront, and will be powered by renewable energy, although it is not clear what size the electrolysers will be, how they will be funded, where the renewable energy will come from or how the hydrogen will be used.
Tokyo governor Yuriko Koike reportedly made the decision after reviewing the city’s budget yesterday, subsequently announcing a trial of a so-called “hydrogen exchange” — essentially a Contracts for Difference (CfD) scheme in which the city will make up the difference between the market price of grey or by-product hydrogen and the premium for renewable H2.
Prices will be determined through an auction, with the trial starting in the fiscal year of 2024.
So far there are no details as to the size of the budget, nor the length of the contracts available.
“We will increase stable transactions and revitalise hydrogen use,” said Koike. “We will quickly realise a society where hydrogen is used everywhere and as a matter of course.”
The Tokyo programme is similar to
that proposed by Japan’s central government, which has said it will begin rolling out 15-year CfD subsidies for producers and importers of low-carbon hydrogen (including blue H
2 made with fossil gas and carbon capture and storage) and its derivatives in 2024.
For now, the Tokyo programme appears to be limiting itself to green hydrogen.
The city’s 2024 budget also makes provision for a new hydrogen fuel subsidy that will be paid directly to operators of H2-powered trucks. The subsidy capped at ¥2m (approximately $14,000) per year for small trucks, and ¥9m for large trucks — although it is not clear whether this amount alludes to the cash available per truck, or the size of the total cash pot.
Hydrogen Insight contacted the metropolitan government of Tokyo for clarification but had not received a response at time of publication.
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