Green hydrogen: these are the major plants and projects to produce it in Europe
Green hydrogen promises to decarbonise the energy system, but between EU targets and real production capacity there is the need to build the new plants. Let's see the biggest to date or under construction in Europe
Trump or Harris, the role of the US vote in the global green transition
Comparison between the two White House candidates on US green policies, with Biden focusing on incentives. The outcome of the election will also determine the direction of global climate finance and the adoption of more or less bold initiatives by the global community
From electronics, a smart eye for the environment: the idea of FAE Technology
The Italian tech group produces the electronic components for devices capable of monitoring urban, rural and fragile territories. Technology meets sustainability, with several active projects around the world and strategic partnerships
“Free”. The revolution you won't expect, in Genoa
The bet won by the Ligurian capital: free tickets and up to 55% lower fares to increase turnover. Here's how AMT, the company that manages public transport, did it
‘Undertourism’: here are 5 alternative destinations to overcrowded travel locations
Everyone knows the places overwhelmed by overtourism. Let's get away from tautologies and explore the most underrated places for a holiday, away from ‘crazy crowds’.
To tax or not to tax? The Hamletic doubt on tolls that embarrasses New York
Approved after years of work and studies in December, Manhattan's congestion charge was to be the first ever implemented in the entire United States. It was scheduled to start on 30 June, but the toll to moderate traffic was postponed to an indefinite date a few days earlier: the Big Apple continues to hesitate without making a decision. Here are the issues that have caused a stalemate
Editor's Hub
Fossil sources, is it still worth it? The risks of a future carbon lock-in
Building fossil-based infrastructure will block the energy transition of the industrial system, beyond the EU's decarbonisation deadlines. This delay will have an impact on climate and economic risks, due to the loss of competitiveness in the manufacturing sector and the spread of stranded assets in the energy sector
Fossil sources, is it still worth it? The risks of a future carbon lock-in
Building fossil-based infrastructure will block the energy transition of the industrial system, beyond the EU's decarbonisation deadlines. This delay will have an impact on climate and economic risks, due to the loss of competitiveness in the manufacturing sector and the spread of stranded assets in the energy sector
A slow and contradictory ecological transition such as the one in Italy not only risks slowing down climate change mitigation, but also filling industrial processes and the economy with obsolete technologies, while taking resources away from the transition to clean energies. It is the phenomenon of carbon lock-in: focusing on fuel-related infrastructure today means committing to investments with a payback time of several decades, thus accepting that at some point you are at a crossroads between two bad options. The first is to continue using them until they expire, thus failing to meet climate decarbonisation targets. The second is to abandon them, leaving the state and corporate balance sheets full of stranded assets, resources that will have lost all value in the meantime and will no longer allow a return on initial investments.
On 20 July 2023, the Italian parliament definitively approved the decree on regasifiers. On the same day, the Ministry for the Environment and Energy Security sent the European Commission the new draft of the PNIEC - the National Integrated Energy and Climate Plan, still strongly linked to the old energy world.
In both cases, the two decisions project the use of fossil fuels, and of natural gas in particular, well beyond the timeframe set out in the European plans to reduce emissions from 2030 onwards, foreseeing a series of investments in new infrastructure and “without a clear exit strategy from fossil fuels, with an emergency vision that does not take into account the evolution of prices and demand”, as stated in the analysis published by the independent energy and climate think tank Ecco.
If from the energy point of view, the risk is mainly climatic and financial, from the production point of view there is also the risk of loss of competitiveness and de-industrialisation for some key sectors, starting with the automotive industry. Slowing down the transition to electricity, or diverting it to technologies with an uncertain future such as biofuels, risks pushing dozens of companies progressively out of the market.
This is particularly important for a country that is Europe's second-largest manufacturer, employing 4 million people and accounting for 20 per cent of GDP, but which has also seen an ageing and shrinking in recent years. For the hard-to-abate sectors, such as cement, glass, paper, ceramics, steel, research and innovation along avenues such as green hydrogen will be crucial, but where mature technologies already exist, such as automotive, rapid translation to sustainable technologies is important. In the event of rapid decarbonisation, according to a study by MBS Consulting, the employment rate will rise from 57% in 2020 to 68% in 2030, especially for young people under 34 and women.
However, the problem of lock-in risks is particularly evident when we look at the role of gas in the energy system. According to an old adage, “oil is an engagement, but gas is a marriage”. This is a way of saying that the complexity of the infrastructure required to use it and the length of contracts with foreign suppliers project the use of this source into the decades. What is decided in the early 2020s has consequences until the 2040s. According to a report by Carbon Tracker even before the outbreak of war in Ukraine, two-thirds of gas contracts had a duration of more than 20 years, the conflict has only made the spot price higher and encouraged stable agreements, which however increase the risk of projecting fossil investments into a future where they will become stranded assets.
In the energy chaos that erupted after the war in Ukraine, EU countries planned to increase their liquefied gas import capacity by 92% until 2026, with Germany in first place and Italy in second, with the signing of at least seven long-term contracts lasting until 2040 and beyond. The financial losses are likely to be in the order of EUR 11 billion, also because - according to a recent forecast by IEEFA (Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis) - gas demand in Europe already in 2030 will be 40 per cent of that in 2019. So, once again, the risk is to build infrastructure that will cease to be useful long before it pays for itself.
According to an analysis by WRI, World Resources Institute, the payback time of an infrastructure investment can range from 14 years for residential to 80, for a median time of 27.5 years, which for gas goes up to 30. This means that a technology choice made today on gas has a projection beyond the EU's net zero terms: globally, $90 trillion will be spent on infrastructure over the next decade: “Choosing well what kind of investments to move towards will make a critical difference,” writes WRI, not only from the point of view of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and thus the impact on the climate crisis, but also for the return on those investments.
The symbol of this still fossil-bound strategy in the coming decades, the one in the time zone of stranded assets, is the decision to build new regasifiers, an approach also confirmed by the government's new PNIEC National Integrated Plan for Energy and Climate, but in contradiction with the RePowerEU plan. Once this technology is in the system, it generates a dependency that is very difficult to break. At the last Italian LNG Summit organised in Rome under the patronage of the Ministry of the Environment, the CEO of OLT Offshore LNG Toscana, a subsidiary of Snam that manages the regasifier in Livorno, said he expects that the operation of this infrastructure - currently scheduled to last until 2033 - could be extended by another ten or fifteen years, therefore until 2048, through a revamping, which would obviously have costs and would be an indication of a political and strategic choice.
The capabilities of hydrogen for industry and transport
The capabilities of hydrogen for industry and transport
It could make an important contribution to reducing emissions where electrification is more difficult and in sectors hard to abate. The Hydrogen JRP is a research centre by the Politecnico di Milano, for a research chain between universities and the business world
In 2050, the year that Europe has vowed to be climate neutral, hydrogen will cover over 20% of the total energy needs in key sectors of the Italian economy. The same is expected in the rest of the countries engaged in the transition to full decarbonisation. This is one of the first studies of Hydrogen JRP, the Joint Research Platform undertaken by the Politecnico di Milano and its Foundation, in collaboration with some large companies, to develop scenarios and strategies for the production and consumption of carbon-free energy.
In fact, the European Commission estimates that in order to meet the Green Deal targets, the Union will need to increase energy production from renewable sources by more than 500 gigawatts (GW) already by 2030, requiring member states to achieve 40 percent of this target by 2025 as part of their NRRPs. Taking advantage of the opportunity offered by Europe, therefore, is not a futuristic theme, but rather an imminent necessity: that of working to build a new social and energy paradigm and launch a major industrial driver through the implementation of significant infrastructure investments and innovation.
Among the priorities indicated in the roughly three hundred pages of the NRRP, the Italian government intends to develop, and makes it clear, a technological and industrial leadership in the main sectors of the energy transition (photovoltaic systems, turbines, hydrolisers, batteries) that create jobs and growth through the development of the most innovative areas, starting with hydrogen.
Hydrogen, if used in a complementary manner with other technologies, can in fact contribute significantly to triggering more sustainable and clean industrial processes and can reduce emissions generated by the transport sector, as well as power generation and domestic heating. This would mean for Italy a reduction of CO2 amounting to more than 70 million tons, 20% of today's total emissions. Moreover, thanks to its unprecedented ability to act as a link between the gas and electricity sectors, as well as allowing the accumulation of large amounts of energy and its movement over time and in different areas of the country, hydrogen can provide flexibility to the energy system and a better exploitation of renewable sources.
In particular, the transportation sector is among the recipients of major transformations involving heavy and long-distance transportation (e.g., commercial vehicles and buses) and non-electrified rail, as well as aviation and parts of light transport. Long-haul transport is responsible for about 5-10 percent of overall CO₂ emissions. With the measures in the NRRP, we could see significant hydrogen penetration of up to 5-7 percent of the market by 2030. On the rail front, however, the focus is on passenger transportation. Currently, about a tenth of our networks are served by outmoded and soon-to-be-replaced diesel trains, making this the right time to switch to hydrogen, particularly where electrification is not technically feasible or is not competitive.
Hydrogen also plays an important role in "hard to abate" sectors, characterised by high energy intensity and lacking truly scalable full electrification options, such as in the chemical and oil refining industries, or in the steel (Italy is one of the largest producers in Europe, second only to Germany), cement, glass and paper sectors.
It is therefore clear that the transition to hydrogen requires, on the one hand, highly specialised new skills, and on the other hand, new technologies. Training and research are two mainstays of the change taking place. For this reason, it is essential to find a solid point of union between the academic and industrial worlds through common platforms and joint laboratories, where innovative technologies can be developed and tested. A place to prepare enabling strategies for the sustainable economy. A place to develop best practices for building and maintaining hydrogen infrastructure.
There are currently five main companies involved in the initiative of the Politecnico and its Foundation. They are part of Hydrogen JRP as founders: Edison, Eni, Snam, A2A and NextChem. However, the intention is to create a real hydrogen supply chain in Italy, expanding participation to the largest number of stakeholders. The first initiatives involve research on the entire value chain: from production, to transport and storage, up to end uses. Two approaches: horizontal projects on cross-cutting issues; vertical projects on specific technologies. The innovation district that is coming to life on the Bovisa Campus around the iconic gas tanks portrayed in Sironi's paintings is giving space to this initiative. Once again, Milan looks ahead. It opens its doors and from here the first steps are taken to promote the competitiveness of the country system.
Media Hub
Tianjin, Paris, Bogota and Jakarta have in recent years won the Sustainable Transport Award, the global competition that each year selects the city with the best projects for renewing mobility in a more sustainable and safe direction. Let's take a look at the results
Richard Branson, Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk are the protagonists of a challenge never seen before in human history, between satellite launches and orbital flight. The world arising from the space economy will depend on them too: here are the tycoons of the planet with space interests, among successes, aspirations and few too many extravagances
A brilliant student who overturned all preconceptions and, starting from the heart of the Mediterranean Sea, established herself in the world as a pioneer of space and the emerging space economy: the story, ambitions and projects of Chiara Cocchiara, an award-winning aerospace engineer with a penchant for the red planet
Green
Projects with a lower environmental impact and future-proof solutions for a sustainability that starts from the foundations.
It seemed like a fantasy, but now it is reality: machines that mimic the faculties of the human mind have arrived and are here to stay. Sam Altman has made Artificial Intelligence available to everyone, thanks to OpenAI. His creature, ChatGPT, poses questions to humans, which “Pioneers of the future” will tackle with the help of a neuroscientist and a totally unexpected guest.
Infrastructure
The possible evolutions of digital, materials and innovation, at the service of those who design.
Mobility
Ideas, scenarios and data to better frame the mobility sector that can change everyone’s way of life.
Green hydrogen promises to decarbonise the energy system, but between EU targets and real production capacity there is the need to build the new plants. Let's see the biggest to date or under construction in Europe
Technology
All the latest news from the world of technology. Up-to-date editorials, data and in-depth articles.
Travel
Moving, creating relationships and approaching what is far away using the most innovative resources of science and engineering.