Future global demand for hydrogen fuel in aviation could require more than half of all power produced in EU today
An extra 500-1,500TWh of renewable electricity would be needed to meet demand from a relatively small fleet of H2 planes by 2050, in a net-zero scenario, says McKinsey report
Hydrogen: hype, hope and the hard truths around its role in the energy transition
And that does not include renewable hydrogen that would be needed to produce synthetic aviation fuels that can be used in existing aircraft. Indeed, the European Commission wants to see 35% of all aviation fuel to be made from the green hydrogen derivative by 2050.
The MPP — a consortium of think tanks Energy Transitions Commission, RMI, We Mean Business Coalition and the World Economic Forum — predicts that by mid-century, most airplanes will run on so-called “sustainable aviation fuels”.
McKinsey estimates that a large hub airport with its own onsite liquefaction and battery charging infrastructure would need 1,250-2,450GWh of renewable energy a year, or five to ten times times more electricity than what Europe’s busiest airport, London Heathrow, currently uses.
The consultancy estimates that $700bn to $1.7trn in capital investment would be needed to finance enough green power and infrastructure to support even the marginal penetration of alternative-propulsion planes predicted by 2050, with $66-114bn needed by then for on-airport infrastructure.
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