we can now produce a ball-park estimate for the total volume of subsidy or support that would be needed in order to hit the Hydrogen Energy Ministerial target of 90 million tons of clean hydrogen per year by 2030. Of the 90 million tons, you will recall that 40 million are meant to go to existing use cases and 50 million to new uses. Multiplying the $2/kg cost penalty for existing use cases by 40 million tons and you get $80 billion per year.
Hydrogen has been embraced by fossil friend and foe alike as the main highway to a zero-carbon energy system. Not everyone agrees. Samuel Furfari, chemical engineer who worked in leading energy positions for the European Commission for 36 years, has written a fiery tract, The Hydrogen Illusion, in which he lambasts the new hydrogen craze. “We have gone this road before,” he says, in an interview from Brussels. “It’s a dead-end.”
