Europe’s Enel is set to begin developing hydrogen production facilities across the EU to help with the drive to phase fossil fuels out of the market.
Their plan is to begin installing large scale electrolysers at solar and wind farms. This comes at a time when hydrogen is being touted as the future fuel source that will replace natural gas and potentially coal firing plants. Some have compared hydrogen to ESS solutions, but we believe that hydrogen should be compared to natural gas without the subsidies.
Should hydrogen production facilities reach a point where they have the same market penetration as natural gas then we could see hydrogen be similar, if not lower than the cost of natural gas.
Enel will begin with 2 – 3 projects first before they decide if now is the right time to invest into more projects. It all comes down to economics.