In a joint statement, 17 organizations call for a reality check in EU hydrogen policy. VDMA Power-to-X for Applications is among the co-signatories.

The associations have identified the following challenges:

• A huge gap between strategic and political vision and market reality.
• Electrolysis capacity is growing only slowly
• The costs of producing renewable and low-carbon hydrogen are hardly competitive
• Insufficient investment in hydrogen production and transport infrastructure.
• Administrative hurdles and delays in the disbursement of funds.
• Lack of long-term demand forecasts and demand-side support instruments.
• Uncertainty about the role of low-carbon hydrogen in the decarbonization of the hydrogen market in Europe.
• Lack of a vision and effective strategy for hydrogen import.

Accordingly, this joint statement aims to draw political attention to the urgent need for a reality check and for the resulting course corrections. It calls for:

• a pragmatic and technology-neutral approach to enable competitive hydrogen production.
• Ensure that financial incentives are created to reduce the cost of hydrogen at the technology level through appropriate measures under the Clean Industrial Deal.
• Achieve greater planning certainty by revising the EU hydrogen strategy to create a competitive hydrogen market in the EU and complement it with a well-thought-out hydrogen import strategy.
• Accelerated, smart infrastructure development
• Creating markets for products made from and with RFNBOs and low-carbon fuels as an essential prerequisite for building a business case.
• Improving European demand incentives
• Strengthening the EU's role in creating a global market for hydrogen by developing the international component of the EU hydrogen bank and extending the scope of the Union database to third countries.

Find the full statement here

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