If we want hydrogen to live up to its promise, let's get it right from the start

今年看到了一批全球氢公告，赢得了“脱碳块上最热门的新技术”的标题。有广泛共识通过帮助美国通过MidCantury实现净零排放全球经济，将需要从可再生能源和水中生产的“绿色”氢气，以避免更危险的气候变化。

但它有极限，尽管化石燃料行业吹捧它作为单尺寸适合的溶液，即使对于具有更便宜的替代品的应用。

There’s no question that 2020 was a banner year for hydrogen. Large chunks of COVID-19 recovery packages across Europe were earmarked for the technology, more than 10 large countries put out national hydrogen roadmaps — mostly focused on green hydrogen — and large-scale projects were announced across欧洲，澳大利亚那Asia和中东。虽然美国正在落后，但势头在这里越来越多，一系列宣布的绿色氢项目那new regional hydrogen倡议和政策文件表明在联邦一级日益增长的兴趣。

氢气 - 目前主要用于炼油厂和肥料生产 - 是通过依赖于化石气作为原料的脏过程产生的，并发出大量的碳污染。美国氢的生产几乎与伊利诺伊州所有的发电厂一样多的气候污染。

美国氢的生产几乎与伊利诺伊州所有的发电厂一样多的气候污染。

However, the process can be cleaned up to produce a "green" version using renewable energy and water. It also has potential to replace fossil fuels in sectors most difficult to electrify such as aviation, marine shipping and heavy industry — and could help us resolve some of the biggest challenges to a fully renewable electric grid (seethis blog有关详细信息）。

With the dawn of a new year and a new administration, the 2020s offer a big opportunity for the U.S. to both join the ranks of global leaders on green hydrogen and erect the right building blocks from the outset to leverage this valuable resource without wobbling in misdirection.

A critical component of a GHG-neutral economy, if it’s cleaned up

有广泛共识that green hydrogen can help us meet our climate goals. But hydrogen’s ability to play a role in cleaning up the economy hinges on its own production being clean, and there’s much work to be done to get us there. Carbon-free "green hydrogen" can be produced by using renewable power to split water into hydrogen and water in electrolyzers.

绿色氢是4到6次比化石氢更贵，占美国氢生产的1％较少。

但是希望：今年的全球承诺预计将大大降低成本，并且由于规模经济和可再生能源污垢廉价的可再生能源，可能会使绿色氢气降低到2030年。事实上，欧盟委员会的大规模部署目标hydrogen plan单独可以将2030年电解器推动电解器的成本下面那些以前预计2050年及以后的人。

但是，成本降低不会保证部署。有必要的有针对性的政策和强大的认证计划，以确保在跨部门生产和使用绿色版本。鉴于该空间的纳粹感觉，那些不存在。但是，随着对新氢应用的兴趣增长，它们应该是行业，倡导者和国家立法者的优先事项，以确保我们不仅仅是将排放从一个点转移到另一个点。

需要强大的政策来克服障碍

尽管2020年代的活动势力，但氢气时代仍然面临着显着的障碍，并且在没有重大政府支持的情况下，将无法实现新部门的技术扩张。对绿色氢的需求仍然很低，成本高，行业正在努力与必要的基础设施建设相关的多年生“鸡蛋”问题。

Here are our recommendations to show the long-term policy support necessary to stimulate investor appetite and de-risk the technology:

• 通过MidCantury通过净零国家，经济范围的排放目标;
• Set emissions standards for the trucking sector;
• Create green hydrogen hubs — clusters of geographically concentrated hydrogen users that can tap into existing hydrogen infrastructure-by supporting refineries and chemical companies in their switch from fossil to green hydrogen;
• 投资于钢铁制造和高热产业的绿色氢演示项目;和
• Require a low blending threshold of green hydrogen in existing gas infrastructure to jump-start the market.

The incoming Biden administration, which included in its climate plan a承诺to drive down the costs of green hydrogen enough to compete with the fossil version, has a pivotal role to play in implementing an effective policy package to unlock the technology potential.

Focus on the hardest to decarbonize sectors

The 2020s also will be a crucial decade to channel investments where the business and climate case for hydrogen are strongest. Those包括sectors with few other decarbonization alternatives such as aviation, marine shipping, steelmaking and long-distance trucking as well as low-hanging fruit existing applications such as refineries and chemical plants.

然而，一些化石燃料公司正在使用氢气作为温暖的未来派幻影，以延长地位，很有希望将其扩大的化石基础设施转化为未来的氢。这主要在建筑物领域播放，在越来越多的时候studiesshow that hydrogen applications for widespread building heat are昂贵的用例对于技术 - 直接电气化很大更具成本效益。

这可能是一个十年对创新和强有力的行动ion on hydrogen where we get it right from the outset.

因此，协调一致的区域和/或国家路线图对于确保氢气被纳入其更有价值的用例并且不用作红鲱鱼至关重要perpetuatereliance on fossil fuels by derailing necessary investments in the electrification of our vehicles, buildings and industry.

这可能是一个十年的创新和对氢气的强烈行动，我们从一开始就得到它，避免了更长的化石燃料锁定，这将是太昂贵的破裂。换句话说，我们需要积极区分"what hydrogen can do and what we should push for hydrogen to do"by directing it into the gaps in the economy, where direct electricity use isn’t feasible.

The trick will be investing in green hydrogen while accelerating investments in renewable energy, efficiency and electrification in parallel. This may not be the hydrogen economy dreamt up by boosters and industry, but "the final piece of the clean economy puzzle" is not too shabby a title.

NRDC年终系列的一部分审查2020年气候和清洁能源发展。